giving you a live look at paris near the rue over kapf. the site of a heinous attack where hundreds were injured or killed while listening to a concert conducted by the eagles of death metal, a california-based band that was in the middle of a european tour. it's the unthinkable that has happened again in paris. here's what we know so far in the scope of last night's attack. france's president says at least 127 people were killed though that death toll could rise.

president hollande said the attacks were planned abroad and committed by members of the islamic state. there were six separate attacks, police say all eight attackers are dead. most of the dead were killed in that theater i referenced, it is the bataclan theater. dozens of hostages were held and then killed there one by one, shot by these attackers that had rifles in hand. we return to keir simmons in paris. you are hearing more on this? what's the latest? >> reporter: well, that's right, alex. we're standing in the street, down the street from where that bataclan music theater is located down there. while the president of france has been speaking, so the news is just spreading here that he now says that he believes the responsibility for these terrible attacks lies with the islamic state, with isis. the stories that we have heard, alex, from inside that music

hall are chilling. we hear about a number of shooters, shooting for 15 minutes. reloading three times. one woman describing hiding beneath a body that she was in a bathroom and that she was shot in the foot while they were attacking and that she heard these men talking about syria, that kind of account seems now to be confirmed by the french president saying that he believes that it is the responsibility of isis, that he believes these attacks were planned from outside the country, but aided by people inside this country. another description, alex, from this very street, a young man, arriving here to see people coming out of that theater, one person with their shirt soaked black with blood he said. another with a bullet hole in his cheek. seemed to be talking to himself. just horrific scenes. in the other direction, a bar

and a restaurant were attacked. accounts there of gun men walking in, opening fire calmly, coolly, firing at the patrons of that restaurant. and bar. and then just walking away in cold blood. another of the attackers is thought to have blown himself up wearing a suicide vest in this street. others inside the music hall, two of them we think, though, were shot by the french security services as they moved into the music hall balls hostages have been taken and the picture was that those shooters were beginning to go around and one by one kill those hostages, perhaps even throw grenades at those hostages. we know that more than 80 people were killed down there alone. it is horrific and has combined to make this the worst atrocity in french history since the second world war. >> it is an extraordinary thing these stories you are talking

about, these people, they endured 10, 15 minutes of terror. i understand many people were killed while lying on the ground just trying to seek cover, that the reports are whether you can confirm this from what you're hearing there, that these attackers, these terrorists, would just go and shoot them individually, just walking around, people begging for their lives and shot as they are trying to have some sort of cover. >> reporter: yes. the simple reality is from the picture we have is that these -- these shooters were deliberately killing as many as they could, they would shoot people and walk up to them and shoot them again. meanwhile, as we now know at the french national stadium there were a number of suicide bombings heard inside that stadium by spectators including the french president francois hollande who was rushed from that stadium, taken to an

emergency meeting. this all appears to have happened at pretty much the same time. pretty much simultaneously. we think the attacks at the stade de france were the beginning but that may be, frankly, just a matter of minutes and although these are in different places, we are in central paris right now, the stade de france is just outside the city pretty much. although they are in difficult places, it's clear that this was a group of attackers who had planned what they were going to do. had coordinated it and began it all at the same time deliberately. >> all right. keir simmons, i know you are trying to get as much information as you can and bring it to us, so go ahead and continue gathering the news. joining me in the studio is editor of our discovery desk, cal perry. let's pick up on what keir was describing. you following the social media, how so many got their stories

out. >> there is a new dynamic. everything happens in real time in digital and we see it as it happens. the gun men set off these bombs outside the stadium, they swept through these restaurants and then in the music hall. let's show you inside the music hall you can see how packed it is in there to give our viewers the idea. this is not from yesterday, these are separate photos. look how jam-packed it gets. >> we're talking about 1,000 people. >> about 1,000, maybe 1500. >> this was a sold-out event. >> sold-out event, packed. when the gun men went into that music hall it wasn't cleerp, was this going to be a long and drawn out hostage situation, oftentimes in terrorist attacks they like to control the media. we saw that in mumbai for 72 hours we're staring at a picture of the hotel. there was a thought maybe this will be long and drawn out. people started tweeting, started putting up facebook from inside the hall saying the gun men are going through executing people one by one methodically. asking the police to breach the

building. we've never seen anything like this. we never had the technology. >> almost as if they were directing what needed to be done to police. >> pleading for help, begging for help saying if you don't save us soon they are going to execute all of us in here. at that moment, as that stuff started bubbling on social media french tv dropped their live signal of the theater. of the music hall. that was a really good indication that they were about to move on that hall. and it also shows you that the french police, these anti-terror forces are starting to think maybe some of this gun men have access to social media sites, maybe they are watching the tv and we don't want to give anything away. it was fascinating the way this played out. >> we like to get our facts and figures straight. this is difficult to get accurate. that said, there are reports of either two, some said even four attackers inside the concert hall. what have you seen? >> we think it's four. we think two people blew themselves up outside the stadium, two in the street, that leaves four in the theater.

the other thing we're tracking we believe that three of the four in the theater were blown up, they blew themselves up. but a fourth may have been taken down by police. if that's true, and if that suicide vest is still intact that is a huge find for investigators because they will be able to trace the explosives, find out the cell, and if the french president is right they may be able to track what the help was from abroad. >> to that end also things like cell phones, they can see people with whom he communicated just before this. >> and how were they communicating. radios, telephones, did they have digital connectivity, were they watching media reports, was somebody feeding them information. as you said in twitter you don't know who you are hearing from. so if you are an anti-terror member of one of those teams going into the building, you are pretty sure it's a hostage telling you to come but you don't know. it could be a gunman. could be a setup. >> by the accounts you're reading on line, cal, were more people killed by gunfire that they were just shot and executed that way, or, in the case of a

suicide bomber, if one did actually explode inside that theater is there any idea the amount of carnage as a result? >> in a closed space you have a lot more damage from a bomb. >> let's have our director put that picture up again. we want to make sure you made it clear this is not a photo from last night but from inside that theater. let's put a suicide bomber in there. >> right. devastating. devastating damage. now there's very graphic video online which we simply cannot show our viewers showing people streaming out the back of the theater coming out the windows. just jumping out. >> someone talking about being up on the roof. >> yes. >> and a neighbor whose window is open, opens the window. >> this is going to be a heroic story. it may be a day or two but a neighbor opened the window to their apartment. we're told it was a tiny apartment, he then moved 60 people through. 60 people out of that theater into that apartment to hide them from these gun men. and you know, again look, people were doing anything to survive. they were reaching out on social

media begging for help. but again, this is something new. this is a new dynamic that these anti-terror forces are going to have to keep in mind. >> can i ask, have you heard anything about doors not being able to be accessed? people couldn't just flee immediately and get outside. >> it's not clear. and under you know, basic fire code, those exits need to be accessible for people. especially in this es clubs where we've seen fires in the past. it's quite possible with four gun men wearing explosive vests the first thing is shut the doors. >> cal, stay there on the set. we'll come back to you. the stories are horrifying, illuminating we hope in terms of helping us understand and piece together what specifically happened. meantime, french president francois hollande says it appears that isis was behind the attacks in paris, the thoughts of msnbc contributor after a short break. it's hard to find time to keep up on my shows.

that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. now i can download my dvr recordings and take them anywhere. ready or not, here i come! (whispers) now hide-and-seek time can also be catch-up-on-my-shows time. here i come! can't find you anywhere! don't settle for u-verse. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv.

5:43 local time in new york. more importantly the pictures you're seeing there 11:43 in the morning in paris approaching noon on this terrible aftermath day as a result of the heinous crimes committed there in paris, the attacks across that city as a new day begins, a state of emergency is still in effect. the details are still developing, but here's what we confirm at this point. france's president francois hollande said this morning that at least 127 people were killed in the attacks, the president also said the attacks were planned abroad, with help from within france. carried out by members of the islamic state. french media reports at least six separate highly coordinated attacks took place at these multiple sites on the map around the city, the central part of france there, the stade de france as well, that's outside the outskirts of central france. the first attack at about 9:30 p.m. local time when apparently

three bombs went off near the stade de france, a national stadium then again in the paris suburbs. let's bring in steven clemons. with the welcome back to you i understand that you have had contact with a french official shall we say, and you've been given information. what do you know? >> while i was on your show i received an e-mail from a french official i can't name but can say that he is involved in the national security side of things and he wrote an e-mail i think captures some of the tension in paris now, and connects the u.s. to sort of this broader question of isis. and he said that one of the reasons we're targeted is not our close cooperation with the united states but our greater vulnerability linked to the fact we are so close and involved in syria. also we should think about the reasons why we have left this isis sanctuary to develop for two years and see it nurtured directly and indirectly, i know it's not your view but there is a need for more u.s.

involvement, you cannot be the leader of the free world and not take into account your ally security interests. that's an interesting connection to make after the paris attacks, looking at this and i should say this is not a french government official, not an official french view, this is a personal view of someone that's in the midst of these decisions and amid the intelligence of what's coming in, the view that this problem with isis is metastasized, grown, is basically coming up within europe now, and they have seen an absence of leadership or this person has seen an absence of leadership by the united states in helping to deal with and respond to isis. >> so this person obviously you know this person, can you category itz the emotion behind this e-mail? is it anger? is it frustration? >> i think it's -- >> hope that the u.s. will become more involved? you have been on my broadcast many times and you do not necessarily subscribe to that ideology but interpret it for

me. >> i think what i'm sensing from this individual whom i have talked to over the last day is a real sense of frustration, identifying this as connected to isis and looking at what isis has become over the last two years, there has been a frustration by the french who have believed that in a number of france, dealing with the terrorism, but more specifically isis, there have been a number of visits by the minister of france, the french defense minister to washington, basically ringing alarm bells about this for some time and so i sense that the snapshot that we got is simply a picture of that frustration out of this immediate moment that there's much that they felt should have been done that the united states could have done that has not been done. and i thought it was worthy of mention. >> of course, paris is a site of so many extraordinary wonderful things, in addition international conferences, many

of which on the dock elt. there is one coming up. >> one this weekend. p i interviewed, well not only that i interviewed yesterday the secretary of energy of the united states who is on -- was on his way today of for the ministerial meetings of the international energy agency which set up the paris climate talks. which will take place in about two weeks. all of that was unfolding this weekend in paris. >> so the extent to which paris can say all right, world leaders, come to paris, we're able to keep you safe, we're able to guarantee that these meetings will be able to go off without a hitch, can paris do that? >> no. all of that is thrown into doubt. paris is one of the great cities of the world, one of the great cities of western civilization and humanity. and after the hebdo attacks because i talked with the various stake holders in this, that the level of coordination and concentration on how to

prevent another hebdo-like attack from occurring was seemed to me to be serious, enormous resolve, enormous planning and greater resources thrown at it. that this has happened again is very, very defeating and disconcerting for those that are part of the security equation there because they can't necessarily say that. i have to tell you that what paris just went through is something that every major western capital now has to go back to its drawing board saying are we prepared, have we done enough? and i think you're going to see a lot of scurrying about to make sure what played out in paris isn't replicated and copied in other vulnerable places. >> you know, steven, i want to bring up one angle of this. we talked many times about iran's contested nuclear program and i should note that the iranian president has canceled trips now, most recently on the heels of this, these attacks to france and italy, there was no

specific indication given as to why but presumption can be made because of security. france of course one of the world powers involved in these recent negotiations about the contested program of the nuclear efforts there in iran. what does that do when you have the president of iran unable to come and have these face-to-face talks that have been ongoing for over a year and a half, what happens? >> i think that the truth is there are ways around it. there's certainly you know, crimping the travel and coordination and direct contact between leaders is something that's unfortunate, but right now as we just saw with the terror incident in beirut lebanon which went into a hetz boo la stronghold there is a major war going on not only between isis and the west but essentially between isis and radical sunni islamists and what they see are iranian supported

radical shia interests. i think that to some degree we see a proxy conflict going on not only now but in the middle east, north africa region but expanding pond those boundaries. i think rouhani is right to be worried about security but at the same time you have leader contact it matters but i continue want to over hype that. there are ways in which leaders communicate and coordinate with the important matters of the day. this incident is not derailing all of the potential talks and deal making on syria. >> i think we should also make note i want to read a quote here from the foreign ministry there in iran, on the heel also of all of this, saying that those terrorist groups that committed the paris crimes do not believe in ethical principles and they are not loyal to any type of devine religion including islam. that point being made by a spokesperson from the foreign ministry inside iran. steven clemons, thank you. i'll be speaking with you again. we'll take a short break.

we leave you with this picture of the area outside of the bataclan arena where the horrible incident happened last night. terrorists attacking in paris.

55 past the hour. we're giving you a look now at a police car at the end of the street where the stadium, the bataclan arena, the site of the horrible attacks last night where dozens and dozens were killed, many more injured. that is the scene right now. we're keeping a close eye on all of the activity there as they continue with their investigation having also heard from the french president who says it is a horror and declared

a state of emergency throughout france. we turn now to chatman bell. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, alex, of course hollande called this an act of war. we're also hearing now that german media is reporting a 51-year-old man was arrested earlier in the month with a car filled with weapons. they are saying that they told france at the time of the arrest,s it appeared he was driving to france. german media linking him as of now to these attacks in paris last night. you know, as we heard francois hollande, he also pointed the finger at the islamic state, saying they were responsible for this. he's call forward three days of mourning but also said the military will be patrolling the streets of paris at this moment, for the next few days as they look for any potential accomplices to these people who

carried out these attacks, these eight people who have been killed but killed 127 people in paris according to francois hollande. >> all right. chapman bell, thank you so much for that. we're approaching 6:00 a.m. in the east. high noon in paris. we're going to take a short break and back we'll take to you paris live.

good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt with msnbc's continuing coverage of the attacks in paris. francois hollande said at least 127 people are dead in attacks across that city and he said they were planned and were carried out by members of the islamic state. >> what happened yesterday in paris and suddenly near the stadium of france was an act of