and now, abc's 20/20. tonight, on a special breaking news edition of "20/20," paris, under attack. all eyes now on the bataclan concert hall. a massive siege now over, police storming inside to rescue hostages. police say more than 100 people are dead. tonight, the very latest from witnesses on the ground and all new details on the other locations across the city, targeted and highly pre-planned attacks. a paris restaurant, s.w.a.t. snipers poised to shoot. bodies covered with sheets. and a game in progress as bombs

explode. tonight, france under a state of emergency. the borders sealed. and the world on high alert. >> i'm david muir. as we come on air in the west tonight paris is now waking up to the full horror of what happened. >> and i'm elizabeth vargas. the world trade center in new york city, the site of the worst terrorist attack on american soil, in solidarity tonight with the french. bathed in the colors of the french flag. blue, white, and red. eight of the attackers are now dead, seven of them by detonated their own suicide belts. we also have confirmation that the attacks took place in six different locations. >> and of course that makes them carefully coordinated in the planning, that must have gone on for weeks, maybe months. nobody yet has claimed responsibility at least officially. but this does come in a two-week

period where jihadi john was killed by a drone attack. he was a symbol for isis, isis is claiming responsibility for planting a bomb on that downed russian airliner two weeks ago. and for the bombing in beirut this week that killed 43 people. president obama saying that isis has been detained but not decapitated. these attacks perhaps saying otherwise. >> and of course paris waking up as we look at the headlines. >> the horror in paris. this time, it's war. >> and president obama has held a phone call with french president hollande, sharing the condolences with people. but we begin here tonight with how it all started and how it began in paris with what one eyewitness called a horror movie that just would not stop. >> it was a typical friday evening in paris, some heading out for dinner, some, a soccer

match, others to a concert. around 9:00 the calls came in, deadly attacks, paris under siege. the first attack happens at a restaurant, a cafe, with live jazz music. gunmen, reportedly killing as many as 40 people. >> they were sitting right at the window when there was numerous gunshots directed at the window towards the restaurant we were eating in. we immediately dropped to the floor with all the other diners. >> bodies lying on the street outside the restaurant covered by white sheets. authorities would later learn about three more similar attacks taking place in the same district of paris. across town the soccer game between france and germany was under way. the stadium packed with fans cheering on their teams. the president of frances is there. just over 16 minutes into the first half an explosion.

that explosion so loud it stops the players in their tracks, they were told to stop doing what they were doing. >> i was attending the game, i heard two very loud explosions. you might be aware, you see soccer games, sometimes they're explosions but they're just fireworks and they sound pretty loud, but they're not dangerous. this time around the explosion was so loud we thought something wrong probably happened. >> the french president is stunned, his hand to his face, he is evacuated from the stadium to safety. police later find evidence that at least one of the explosions was carried out by a suicide bomber, one of three attackers who died near the national stadium. a little more than five miles away at the bataclan concert hall, the american band from california, eagles of death metal, is performing. this instagram shown just

moments before the bomb in the theater. there was believed it could have been many more. a brother of one of the band mates were speaking tonight. >> he said they were playing about six songs into the show. and at the heard before they saw anything. they heard automatic machine gun fire. and you know, so loud it was louder than the band. >> on facebook, a harrowing post from somebody inside theater saying he was seriously injured and that there were still survivors inside. they're killing everyone, he wrote. the french president asking everybody to stay inside. french president hollande orders the borders closed. social media lights up. tweets across the globe, so many famous faces expressing support, expressing their solidarity and condolences. hillary clinton wrote, they are

praying for the families and their victims, donald trump said my prayers are with the victims and the hostages in the horrible paris attacks, may god be with you all. here, president obama addresses the nation. >> france is our oldest ally. the french people have stood shoulder to shoulder with the united states time and again. and we want to be very clear that we stand together with them in the fight against terrorism and extremism. >> 11:30 p.m., they began to storm the theater where the american band was performing. on the band's facebook page telling fans we are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all of our band and crew. just after midnight reports that the siege on that theater is over. at least 100 people have been killed according to french media reports, four terrorists confirmed dead. three of them in that concert

hall detonating suicide vests. tonight in the face of such horror, already signs of the strength of the french people. while leaving the soccer stadium these fans singing the french national anthem. we're back now and they initially thought there were three or four locations. we now know there were six locations as you mentioned, and one place was a restaurant. >> that is right, the cambodian restaurant, one woman was at the restaurant, charlotte breo, 14 people were killed. it was packed tonight. what did you see? where were you sitting? >> i sat right against the window. so next to the street where the gunman came towards i was sitting with one friend.

and we immediately heard really loud gunshots. everybody dropped to the floor in confusion. and it felt like it was not happening. it didn't feel real. and i am actually shocked to hear how many people were dead because i was not really aware that people had -- so many people had been fatally wounded. the first realization i had, i was holding onto the hand of a woman on the floor. i realized she was not breathing, she was struggling to breathe. as i felt safe enough to look up. i think she was shot in the chest. there was a woman carried across the street by her boyfriend when i went to leave the restaurant. it was really awful. really awful. >> awful scene as you described it. we're glad you survived it,

charlotte. you didn't hear the attack because you say they were driving by when they opened fire on this small restaurant? >> yeah, i was not aware they were driving by, but they didn't come in. they didn't come in, into the restaurant. they were just outside. it did seem like they stopped and then they went to reload their guns and then there was another round. so -- it was slightly delayed. but they didn't come in. >> and charlotte, at that point, when he stopped to reload what happened in that restaurant, did people try to run for safety? were you stunned into -- silence and paralysis at that point? >> yes, absolutely, it was paralysis. and almost -- i think people were so confused and almost waiting for somebody to give some kind of directive and nobody did because it was just such bewilderment, and it was a

lively area, sort of young people, no one was expecting it or knew what to do. so it was just horrific and shocking. >> charlotte, we know the president of france has asked families now to stay indoors. all places will be closed tomorrow, government buildings for the foreseeable future. what is it like when you look out your windows tonight? simply a stunned community across paris? >> yes, i mean, all night, i have not slept. i have just been listening to ambulances and driving around. i only live 15 minutes from the restaurant and 15 minutes from the concert hall. so i'm really in the thick of it. and i imagine that everybody is feeling the same. and actually the feeling i felt is -- i feel it's similar to the atmosphere that was in paris in january during the charlie hebdo attacks, just people feeling scared and unsure.

and yeah, it -- just strange. >> and i'm just curious, charlotte, how did you get out of there and when you did get out of there what did you see? >> well, my first priority was my friend. i couldn't see him. he was under the table. i tried to find him. i was worried had he -- if he was okay. i felt like they were gone and was just going with my instinct. and luckily it was the right decision. they could have been still in the street. i told him to go, run, i knew as i lived close we just ran straight to my house. so we were one of the first people to go. but like i said everyone was in -- stunned and frozen on the floor. no one wanted to move because people were scared it would -- something else might happen. >> all right, charlotte breo, an

astonishingly frightening night for you. thank you for joining us from paris via skype. and of course 14 dead in the restaurant where she was dining tonight. but the most casualties were at a concert hall not far from where the restaurant was. a concert had just begun by an american band, eagles of death metal. and the band had just sung six songs when they heard automatic gunfire when the chaos began. >> it was a festive friday night in paris, and the american group death metal were playing to hundreds of fans who had gathered. suddenly, three or four gunmen carrying kalashnikov rifles and started drilling into the crowd. the drummer told his brother what they saw from the stage. >> he said they were laying

about six songs, they heard automatic machine gun fire, so loud, it was louder than the band. and they all kind of hit the stage floor. they saw men with machine guns just kind of shooting at anything and everything. there was a door, i guess, back of the stage that led to a street. and they blew out the back door. >> witnesses reported that the shooting and slaughter continued for ten minutes. some escaping as the killers stopped to reload. one witness claims the gunman shouted syria. jennifer watson somehow found her way out. >> then the shots continued, kept going on. and then i saw people starting to panic. people were running away, and i could see from where i was from the balcony downstairs where the shots had come from. because i couldn't see anything, i just heard the shots. people were running away. and all of a sudden people on the balcony where i was sitting

started to panic. that is where i ducked, went behind the seats. and the friend i was with, i took her hand and we kind of made our way to an exit. >> while many audience members escaped during the chaos, others were trapped behind, held hostage. >> at the time that they started to kill individuals and you know that they were killing individuals you must go in. >> hostage negotiator aaron sanchez. >> you are thinking of how many lives could i possibly save by entering? and how many more lives will be threatened. just after midnight, the french special forces assaulted the theater, overpower ed and killed the gunmen in a burst of gunfire and explosions but not before at least 100 members of that audience were killed. four of the gunmen were found dead in the theater, three by activating their suicide belts.

>> obviously we know three of the terrorists were prepared to die, at least three prepared to die for the attacks tonight. people who were on scene after they managed to get in and storm the scene, called it a blood bath. it looked like a war zone. in this case, the decision to go in, term sure these terrorists meant to kill inside. it was a matter of we have to go in now even though people will die and save as many as we can. >> and you and i have reported many times on these situations. and often it's a real struggle based on who should go in, and save people. jenny, first of all, we're glad you're okay. can you tell us, describe the aftermath inside the concert hall? >> all i can say is that i was there when it started. i was actually there for the concert because the eagles of

death metal are a band i really like and i was there with a friend. and we were in the middle of the concert and all of a sudden this huge shootout started. and it was a quite -- quite a high pitched shootout. myself -- never being in a shootout in my life i actually thought it was a joke. i thought the band was like playing a joke on us and i didn't believe it at first. but then i saw people screaming and i was on the first floor of the venue. i was not down at the bottom. so i -- i heard all the shots, and they were consistent. there were a lot of shots and they didn't stop. and that is when i thought we had to leave. i was with my friend and took her hand. we ducked. we hid behind the seats and we managed to slip away through the safety exit that was near to

where we were. there was a panic -- but we managed to escape in the streets. but there were people harmed. people were wounded. there was blood. and people were -- had you know, bullet wounds in their legs. it was not nice. >> we heard one eyewitness who was also in that stadium with you, the theater, the concert hall with you. describe how the gunmen were going down and executing people one by one, did you see anything like that? >> no, what is really crazy and that is what is keeping me awake right now because it's like it's 4:00 a.m. in the morning here in paris and i can't sleep. i feel so strange because the weirdest thing is, i didn't -- i didn't panic. i just heard. i didn't see the people. i just heard these consistent gunshots which were kalashnikovs. which i think they call them in english, kalashnikovs.

and they just kept going bang, bang, bang, bang. >> so no break to reload? nothing like that? >> sorry? >> no break to reload? >> yeah, they just kept firing. they were downstairs and it was obvious, we were on the first floor on the balcony. and it was obvious they were underneath. i said to my friend, [ bleep ] what the hell is that, sorry, and she is like i don't know. and we didn't take it seriously. but all of a sudden everybody started to panic. and that is when we realized that it was serious. and that those shooters were actually you know coming up to the first floor as well. and i don't know how you know, the universe was in my favor. i don't know, but i managed to escape through a safety exit with a lot of other people without being harmed. and you know i crossed paths with people who were wounded. i saw a girl who had a bullet wound in her thigh. somebody else was on the floor

with blood everywhere. it was horrible. >> you know, jenny, there were reports that the gunmen were shouting as they attacked in the concert hall. i'm curious, did you hear what they were shouti inshouting? we didn't see images from the theater, and quite frankly we don't want to. but can you tell us -- >> i don't think anybody could have been filming at that particular time. because nobody wants to be filming that. the main energy, the main flow was to get the hell out of there. i didn't hear anything because i was -- like i say i was on the first floor. so i didn't hear anything. i didn't hear any -- anything. i didn't hear any religious things, nothing, no, i didn't hear anything like that. all i know is that people were firing kalashnikovs and that we had to get out. >> and was it pandemonium to get out? >> yeah, it was. and it wasn't.

it was like people were panicking, like a lot of people were crying and stuff and it was a bit of a panic. but it was not like you know when people get trampled. it was not like that. i didn't feel trampled. i didn't feel squashed. all i know is that i made my way to the safety exit which i saw you know when i was actually there. i noticed it. because i always look where safety exits are because i'm kind of wary of crowds. and at one point people who were behind the doors, they stopped them and said no, they're there. and then they opened them a minute later and everybody ran out. everybody ran out in a panic. you know, we all ran out in different directions. >> and jenny, you know several people were held hostage for several hours. you know how lucky you were that you got out? >> i know, the people held hostages, i knew.

the person i was with was a friend and she works in the music industry. her friends are the people who work there. so since escaping, you know, we came back to her place and we have had messages and e-mails and facebook messages from people who were trapped in the -- what would you call it in english? i can't find the word in english. like the place where you get changed as an artist. >> right, the dressing rooms. jenny, thank you so much for joining us. what a frightening ordeal, you managed to survive. thank you also to our audience. we want to apologize for some of the colorful language she used. she was obviously in a stressful situation and was very honest describing it. >> we can understand why she is still up at 4:00 a.m., i can't imagine anybody sleeping tonight. i want to bring in louise.

you and i were talking earlier. you said you heard what sounded like mini explosions as the s.w.a.t. teams raced into that theater and clearly intelligence officials telling us the s.w.a.t. teams knew they had to get in there. >> that is correct. i heard about 12 loud bangs. and shortly after, ambulances rushing towards the theater. i was able to follow some of them and i could see firefighters evacuating people from the second floor. taking them to this makeshift hospital, makeshift hospital and a cafe nearby. and i saw people you know coming out looking terrified with blood all over their t-shirts. many of them on the phone probably calling relatives. and really a sense of tragedy here on the streets of paris tonight. >> and louise, we can see the police presence as you spin your

camera around there. you have been held back quite a ways earlier in the evening. have they allowed you to get any closer and have you had any information from authorities there about what remains inside that concert hall? obviously authority fearing this death toll could go much higher. do we know anything about the people who were targeted inside? >> well, following the terrorist attacks on the charlie hebdo magazine in january, police here are extremely careful. and so they have closed the whole neighborhood. and journalists, citizens, no one is allowed to get any closer to the theater. so no information at this stage on what is happening, exactly right now. we did see, however, some buses early on taking all the people that have been evacuated to a nearby hospital. to be taken care of over there. but definitely a lot of security on the streets of paris.

>> we mknow that workers have been called in to work, the metro has been shut down. >> all public gatherings, grocery stores, gyms, schools, museums, they're all closed down tomorrow. parks, right now the borders are sealed in france. a state of emergency has been declared and the question has been now turned to who orchestrated this incredibly sophisticated attack. we're joined by our senior justice correspondent. good evening, pierre, give us the latest. >> elizabeth, they need to know what did this and they need to know right now. the critical question, who did this? on the short list, al qaeda or isis. just recently, two brothers

forced their way into the office of charlie hebdo in paris, killing 11 and injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video, al qaeda in the arabic peninsula claimed responsibility for the assault. and the sources say that the two gunmen trained in syria. one report says authorities found evidence in the gunman's apartment that he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believed to have traveled to syria. >> the attacks she used in this attack are similar to the attacks carried out by isis. it is still too early to know for sure, but it would not surprise me if it was linked to al qaeda or isis. >> al qaeda is looking into terrorist acts, after they conducted the most devastating

attack in recent history. in recent months, al qaeda is working on a so-called undetectible bomb. authorities don't believe their blo blo blo bloodlust is confined to just bombing. th-- 164 people were killed and over 300 wounded. but perhaps the most active terror group on the planet right now is isis, consuming huge amounts of land in iraq and syria, consuming the islamic state. thousands are flowing into these countries, recruiting people from around the world including the u.s. and europe. more than 1500 french citizens affiliated with isis, a quarter of the european total. the past july a french-speaking member of isis appeared in this video, saying that the group

will bring slaughter to france. according to the brookings institute, france has the largest muslim population, half of them believed to be under 24. many first came after the war of independence in the northern african countries in the late 50s and '60s. tempers have continued for a while, in the past, police shot and killed the demonstrators. some were thrown into the river. today, most notably, the suburbs of paris. like so many cities where the suburbs are affluent, these areas are hot beds of unrest. >> there are real challenges in the area, where they are coming from north africa and turning

the society. according to one article, estimates are 60% of french prison inmates are muslim. prime targets for jihadists. >> one of the challenges that the french government and the french people will face in the days ahead will be to ensure that hate crimes are not committed against people who had nothing to do with this attack. >> u.s. officials have been operating at a high temple for months concerned about al qaeda bombers, isis and so-called lone wolves who could strike at any time. the pressure incredible as they have to worry about all scenarios. >> all right, pierre, thank you so much. we're joined now by brian ross. the big debate began after the attacks tonight. what do you think? what are your sources telling you? >> right now they're focusing on isis because of the raw numbers that isis has, as pierre reported more than a thousand sympathizers, some going to

syria, there is just a wealth of people who have been available. and recently there have been threats on social media to bring slaughter to paris. >> and what do you make about reports that some were yelling syria as they opened fire. >> very telling, the fact is tonight they have fingerprints and photographs of the dead attackers. they are being run through channels and by tomorrow we'll have more of an idea who they are. >> and when you hear about the suicide belts they detonated in the middle of the concert halls, the so-called soft targets, that is the real fear. >> there is the fear they would be able to defend against this similar kind of attack. >> rich, talk about the sophistication of this attack, what it took to almost simultaneously have six different attacks go under way in paris tonight.

>> well, the weapons themselves are not sophisticated. so i wouldn't call it a sophisticated attack but a complicated attack because they had to do five or six targets at more or less at the same time. this indicates a group with training. this is why i think it is probably isis. it may be people who returned from syria, from fighting in syria. they look like they have had had training to be able to pull off this kind of simultaneous complex attack in the heart of a major city. >> we have about four -- at least probably four, maybe five of the terrorists killed so far. how many people, though, do you think were involved in this? >> probably not many more than that. if we look at the only other attack in history that looks like this, it was the mumbai attack in india where a handful of people tied up the city, a huge city, by staging this kind of running attack and then ending up at one venue where they took hostages and did their

last stand. now, that actually was not al qaeda. that was a pakistani group. but this tactic is one that has been learned and i think it has been learned very well by isis and practiced in isis in syria and in iraq. the interesting thing is, the french didn't see it coming. and the only way you can stop these attacks on soft targets is to know it's coming and arrest people before they do it. if the french didn't know who these guys were and did not have any indication that the attack was about to happen, that is very disturbing and frightening because it means we might be in the same situation where we know who the al qaeda people are in the united states or we know who the suspects are. but we may not know all the isis people. >> dick, you bring up the very point we were making earlier which is that is the frightening point. these are soft targets so unless you catch them before and you don't have the targets to track them down. i want to bring in our chief

global affairs correspondent, martha, dick points out this could be isis. tactics have already been learned. but the real fear you bring up in the afternoon and evening of reporting here is this might not be these groups may now be competing with one another for global attention. >> it almost seems that way, al qaeda has not been in the news that much. and certainly the news has been saying hard core al qaeda has been done away with. they want to get back and make a big splash. they're looking at all of these possibilities. i do think somebody shouting syria is possibly a very big clue. france, like the u.s., has been targeting isis in syria. so that may give investigators some clue as to motive. because isis would certainly have motive here. >> one other key component of that concert hall, that was an american band on stage from california. we do know one of the band

members from georgia told our affiliate that he learned his home invasi loved one is safe, they were able to get out of a back door. >> they heard the gunfire and they immediately turned and ran. they had had a stage door there because they could tell what was going on in that concert hall. so they turned and ran. and that is very good for them. because they are the lucky ones. because we've already heard how many people died in that concert hall. at least 100 they're saying, within that concert hall itself. >> and talking about that concert hall i would like to bring in brad garrett who is formerly with the fbi with a lot of experience in these hostage situations. and brad, talk us through the decision by french police, french s.w.a.t. teams to storm that concert hall when they did. i mean, they had terrorists inside armed to the hilt, killing people and more than 100 hostages. how do you decide when to go? what is the calculation there?

>> it's all based -- elizabeth, when you have enough information about what you're walking into. because the last thing you want to do is walk into a booby trap. so i think they had enough time obviously to interview people who had escaped from the theater. what did you see? how many people did you see? how many people do you think they shot? et cetera. did you see explosives. were they rigging doors, all of those kind of questions. while these debriefs are going on then you have a team of texts, you have to get cameras so they can look and hear what is going on. once you have that core information you're probably going to go in. they all know, we all know they're not coming out. they're either going to blow themselves up or we're going to kill them. and obviously, there are people that are bleeding to death. you want to get them out of there. i think once you get that core information you -- have reporting of multiple

explosions, those are flash bangs, the whole key is to disorient the bad guys. so when the flash goes off it gives you time to draw a bead and shoot somebody. >> yes, a tough decision whether or not or if and when to go in. we have john cohen, formerly with homeland security. and a lot of people watching this tonight want to learn about football games this weekend. we learned about heightened security in this country because of the real concern as we mentioned over soft targets in all of our communities. >> david, so fbi and dhs have already provided information to state and local authorities. but the state and local law enforcement are not going to be waiting for dhs and fbi. they're going to assess what events, what security needs are necessary within their own communities. the public should expect to see increased police presence, particularly mass transit, around so-called soft targets and in big cities, i think that

the police presence will be pretty significant. >> all right, we'll be continuing this discussion in just a moment. it's worth noting that u.s. intelligence officials say tonight, goes to what brian is saying, absolutely no chatter about the possible paris attack. so this caught french and american officials completely off guard. >> as we go to break, we want to show you an incredibly moving scene at the soccer stadium. all of them spontaneously beginning to sing the french anthem. a lot more ahead as we continue

allahu . and we are live now back on the air, 20/20 with the live coverage on the terrorist attacks in paris. making it a city under siege. six different attacks targeting a soccer stadium, a concert hall. several restaurants. >> as we know paris was set to host the climate conference in just a couple of weeks with leaders from around the world including president obama and the real fear were these soft targets. >> and of course, we're getting word there was no hint of any kind of chatter about any type of attack in paris, either from american intelligence sources or french sources. here, the city is bathed in colors of blue, white and red in honor of the french and what

they have endured. joining us right now is new york city mayor bill de blasio and what homeland security is doing about this threat and whether or not there is more security in and around manhattan. good evening, mr. mayor. >> good evening, well, we definitely are on high alert here in new york city. and we have our counterterrorism officers out in the city, including obviously the french mission to the u.n. and the french consulate. we're making sure there is real presence there and in other key areas around the city, heavily populated and trafficked areas to reassure the people in the city. >> mayor de blasio, i know one concern is the chatter, and the release of intelligence. one report shows that in france there are many isis sympathizers that they're tracking. hundreds have gone to syria, but there are still many here, the concern is in a city like new

york city we have the intelligence before they can pull off attacks like this across the city. >> look, we know it's a real challenge. in general, we have seen there is some kind of prior indication. but we're also living in an age where there is some lone wolf attacks. so the ability to respond immediately with well trained, well equipped officers is a key part of our city. >> we also saw in the city, soft targets attacked with great efficiency. how do you protect cities around the nation, how do you protect those soft targets? those football games this weekend, concerts taking place everywhere in the country? >> look, in our case, there will certainly be substantial presence at some of the key events and some of the key places in the city. i think the bottom line is this, a lot of efforts have been made. we have been vigilant as a city since 9/11. literally for 14 years we lived

in a high state of vigilance. >> mayor de blasio, with just a few minutes left, what would you say to residents who may be worrying that it is only a matter of time. what do you say and does it keep you up at night? >> it is something that worries me every day. but i also know the track record of this country and certainly the nypd since 9/11 over 14 years has been extraordinary. identifying potential threats. stopping them before they could be achieved. constantly working to improve our capacity. i think in fact there is a lot of reasons that people should be confident in the security capacity of certainly this city and this nation. but look again, with a lone wolf situation we simply have to be vigilant, we have to recognize any suspicious activity should be reported to the police quickly. we said if you see something, say something. that phrase takes on a lot of meaning in the age of lone wolf attacks. and that means we have a chance to stop them if our fellow

citizens are able to report to the police the things they see. look, tonight is the night to think of the people of paris, what they went through in january. i was there in the aftermath of the january attacks. this whole world's heart is with paris tonight. but i think the answer for all of us is to support our police and inform everything we see, provide that information to the police promptly. >> mayor de blasio here in new york city. mayor, thank you for joining us. he makes a great point. president obama saying earlier we stand with france, vice president joe biden tweeting out our hearts are with the people of france. and it's nice to see the colors of the french people tonight. >> we'll be right back in a moment. but here are the latest scenes tonight from paris. stay with us. today, 1 out of every 4 american kids is hispanic.

. the pictures from paris tonight there in the middle of the night, of course we talked to some eyewitnesss, people who escaped. the terror of the scene, they say they cannot sleep tonight. of course we understand. we'll take a look at the area here, the so-called soft targets, not the battlefield anymore. the streets, the concerts, restaurants, simple restaurants where they simply drove by and began to attack people sitting inside. so a look at the soft targets and the concern in america. here is our chief global affairs correspondent, martha radditz. >> david, these are the soft targets, and tonight they play to everybody's fears, the sporting event, the theater, the restaurant. >> reporter: tonight, the united states standing in solidarity with its french allies, new york's freedom tower lit in the colors of the french flag. all across the country tonight, cities are on high alert.

the new york police department working overtime. >> well, that is what you will see in new york. the deployment of what is called critical response vehicles to locations not only to add security but also to raise the comfort level. >> that heavy artillery is a show of force at new york's most visible targets. statue of liberty, lincoln center, and of course, times square. >> we'll deploy the resources at sensitive locations. the reality is that they're a lot more sensitive locations than there are resources to cover them. >> reporter: and that is arguably what the terrorists are counting on. and now, in light of the attacks in paris, especially the one near the soccer stadium, sports venues are taking pro-active measures this weekend. meanwhile, the nba and nhl warning all teams and arenas to

be extra vigilant. but the nfl who has games, is not beefing up security. the security is always at high alert says spokesperson brian mccarthy, pointing out every nfl stadium is already equipped with metal detectors. and while the former commissioner concedes met life stadium, home to the giants, is protected, they may not all be. >> in some places i believe there is an effort to have it done in all major league venues, but i don't think it is there yet. >> but truly, soft targets like shopping malls and theaters are extremely vulnerable. remember in kenya, the heavily armed gunmen picked off victims one by one, including this security guard cowering in fear.

>> i think they knew they had a soft target and authorities would for the respond immediately. >> reporter: a quiet area on manhattan's west side, a lone security guard patrolling at the gap. people catching a movie or a late dinner. at the lincoln subway stop, no sign of increased security. >> it'shorrifying, it reminds me of the charlie hebdo and everything else that is going on in the world that we have no control over. >> it was not an attack on paris, it was an attack on humanity. and that is kind of scary. >> there are bad people for the world. i'm not sure we can stop all of them. we can try but there is going to be attacks like this at random. they're random and isolated. the 8 million people in new york, we can't keep an eye on 8 million people. the risk of being killed in a terrorist attack is still about the equivalent of being killed in a shark attack.

>> this woman is a tourist visiting new york from san francisco. >> the parks are always busy, always so crowded during those games. i live near one of those stadiums. how can i avoid that unless i moved. and if i moved i wouldn't be able to go to work easily. so it's kind of a catch 22 in my opinion. >> the department of homeland security jay johnson says dhs and the fbi are closely monitoring events in paris but he says we know of no specific or credible attacks on the u.s. homeland of the type that occurred in paris tonight. of course, there were no specific threats in paris, either. >> these are the kind of attackers who are not only hard to detect, but very hard to stop. elizabeth and david. >> indeed, and you talked about the resignation of many in the piece we talked about could not stop all the attacks. 73% of americans called it very or somewhat likely in the near

future there will be a terrorist attack in the united states causing large numbers of lives to be lost. we have former commissioner ray kelly here to join us. when you hear the new yorkers and people from every city and this country talking about sort of resigned how do we stop it? i mean, we can't change the way we live, right? >> we can't change the way we live but i think we're doing a pretty good job when you look at the attacks that we have had in this country since 9/11. they're negligble, but not close to anything we've seen in paris. >> and you said in previous attacks, we thought there was a big number of attackers because of the scope of it. it actually shrunk down. >> this looks like five or six people killing 200 people. so there is always an estimate there is a lot more and then you get down to the final analysis.

it's a few people with ak-47s. very basic weapons killing lots of individuals. >> and commissioner you were telling elizabeth and me during the break it would appear that the french police should be applauded responding fairly quickly to this. but as you heard martha say, there was very little chatter before this happened. >> no chatter. >> how do we track them and how can we be sure we monitor them all? >> with great difficulty. and we can't be sure. you're right, sometimes there is not going to be any chatter at all. you do the best you can. and i think law enforcement in this country has done a very good job. but as has been said so many times, they only have to be right once, we have to be right all the time. >> to very much. we'll take a break for our local stations to preview what is coming up in many cases on their own local news cast. 15 seconds from our local news. people think i'm trash.

we're back now on 20/20, our live coverage on the paris attack. and we want to bring in randy scott, a journalist in the stadium. and it was stunning to see between france and germany, this giant rivalry. you could see there, people hugging one another -- andy, where were you when you could actually hear this? >> good morning, yeah, i was in the stadium, in the press box at the stadium which is an enormous stadium with a group of 80,000 on the other side of the stadium from where there were two very loud explosions that could be had five minutes apart during the first half of the game.

so yeah, it was in the stadium. you know, it was pretty clear very quickly that those explosions were not anything normal. but things carried on until the end of the game. and it took a long time for things to be clear, just how serious it was. >> there was an iconic image now. it only took a matter of moments for the world to see. president hollande put his hand to his face. he was in the stadium. they had to evacuate very quickly. how long before there was a true grasp of what happened in the city? >> yes, in the stadium, a situation like that is difficult because as i'm sure you're aware, sometimes when there were so many people in the small space sometimes the telephone networks don't work as well as they may at other times. so communication may be complicated at these times. but obviously 20 or 30 minutes after the explosions i was able

to make a couple of calls, contact my desk. and it emerged, and i am sure with many people in the stadium they understood very serious events were happening not just around the stadium but in the city, as well. it would have been the same for people in the stadium, but it's important to underline the fact that this game continued until the finish. and the general atmosphere remains very calm. there was no mass hysteria or no mass panic. there was some confusion at the end of the match when -- they tried to -- when people were leaving the stadium. and clearly blocked the number of the exits for obvious reasons because there had been explosions outside the ground. so there was less space for people, a huge number of people to leave the stadium. and that meant there were a lot of people on the pitch where the game had taken place. and there was some confusion but no panic. so you know, people by that point were realizing what was going on, you know, but the

stadium is about five miles or so to the north of the center of the city. but despite that you know, the trains and metro was running normally. so things carried on. but there was no hysteria, just confusion. >> i was going to ask how they all got down to the soccer field where the game had had been played. was that in an effort to get to safety and security because nobody really knew what was happening in the stands and in the hallways of the stadium? >> i think that it is very easy to look at these images and come to the conclusion that things were disorganized. there were all sorts of problems. it was more i think a case of a realization when you have so many people trying to leave the stadium and so many exits blocked off, clearly you are going to get a situation where you have too many people trying to leave through the same exits. and i think a lot of these people were just waiting for

things to calm down. there was no -- people were standing and being calm on the pitch. just waiting for things to clear up in terms of the number of people around there. so this would not be wronged to describe this this as evacuation as panic, anything like that. this was just a case of a huge number of people trying to leave the smaller number of exits because clearly the gates that are often used to let people out were right next to where these explosions were taking place. >> all right, andy scott. thank you for joining us tonight for a summary what happened in that other attack tonight. in that stadium. >> the bravery of so many eyewitnesss tonight. >> the calmness of everybody. >> and as we say good night, one more major development. that of the eight terrorists who were killed after these attacks, seven of them killed themselves with suicide belts, perhaps a new chapter on this in terror. we'll leave you tonight with the images from paris throughout the evening, it's now morning there.

your local news is coming up with much more. and of course we'll cover this all night long. for elizabeth vargas and all of us here, have a good night. >> we saw a man holding his girlfriend, she had been shot in the stomach, i could see she was bleeding. >> and we heard a bunch of gunshots, maybe eight to ten. our first instinctas to run into the restaurant.

abc 7 news starts with live breaking news. >> we have two breaking news stories, here in the bay area 20 people were injured when a tour bus karecareemed into several c and in paris. >> we heard a bunch of gunshots maybe eight to ten. >> this is an attack on all of humanitiy and the universal values that we share. >> at least 120 people dead in the city of light. from the bay area and around the world people are pausing to pay tribute to the victories and show solidarity with all of those in sfrans. those in france. >> here's the latest at least 120 people are dead after a series of six