The China Mail - Church bells ring as France marks decade since Paris attacks

Flowers, candles and photos surrounded commemorative plaques bearing the names of those killed -- and of two people who later took their own lives -- at the sites struck by jihadists on the night of November 13, 2015.

Outside the cafes, restaurants and concert hall in Paris where most of them lost their lives, officials, survivors and relatives laid wreaths after moments of silence.

"The pain remains," President Emmanuel Macron, who led senior French officials in the commemorative ceremonies, wrote on X.

"In solidarity, for the lives lost, the wounded, the families and loved ones, France remembers."

In the attacks claimed by the Islamic State group, the assailants killed around 90 people at the Bataclan concert hall, where the US band Eagles of Death Metal was playing.

They ended the lives of dozens more at Parisian restaurants and cafes, and one person near the Stade de France football stadium, where spectators were watching France play Germany.

- 'The absence is immense' -

Thursday's ceremonies began at the Stade de France just outside Paris, where the family of the first person killed in the attacks, Manuel Dias, paid hommage to the victims.

"We will never forget. They tell us to move on 10 years later, but the absence is immense," said his daughter, Sophie Dias, in a speech.

After visiting every attack site, Macron was due to preside over a remembrance ceremony at a memorial garden in central Paris.

Areas around the sites were cordoned off, but residents of the French capital honoured the anniversary with candles, flowers and notes at a temporary memorial at the Place de la Republique.

Adrain Aggrey said he had laid flowers at the memorial for the families of the victims.

"It's to show them that we haven't forgotten," he told AFP.

The sole surviving member of the 10-person jihadist cell that staged the attacks, 36-year-old Salah Abdeslam, is serving life in jail. The other nine attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police.

"France over these years has been able to stand united and overcome it all," former president Francois Hollande told AFP in a recent interview.

The then-president was at the Stade de France when the attacks began, and was whisked out of the crowd before re-appearing on national television later that night, describing what had happened as a "horror".

He declared France "at war" with the jihadists and their self-proclaimed caliphate, then straddling Syria and Iraq.

- 'Democracy always wins' -

Hollande testified in the 148-day trial that led to Abdeslam being jailed for life in 2022.

He said he remembered telling the defendants, including others accused of plotting or offering logistical support, that they had been given defence lawyers despite having committed "the unforgivable".

"We are a democracy, and democracy always wins in the end," he said he told them.

US-backed forces in 2019 in eastern Syria defeated the last remnants of the IS proto-state that inspired the Paris attacks.

Abdeslam remains behind bars and is open to the idea of speaking to victims of the attacks if they want to take part in a "restorative justice" initiative, according to his lawyer Olivia Ronen.

In Paris, survivors and the relatives of those killed have attempted to rebuild their lives, but some have approached the tributes with apprehension.

Stephane Sarrade's 23-year-old son Hugo was killed at the Bataclan, a place he has avoided since.

"I am incapable of going there," he told AFP, adding he would stay away from Thursday's ceremonies.

A museum is to open in 2029 to house around 500 objects linked to the attacks or its victims, most contributed by the bereaved families to curators.

It also contains a blackboard menu of La Belle Equipe riddled with bullet holes, still bearing the words "Happy Hour".

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