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Bodies of 103 killed in Paris attacks identified

"Between 20 and 30" bodies were still pending identification, French PM said.

A man pays his respects outside the Le Carillon restaurant the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris, on Saturday

A man pays his respects outside the Le Carillon restaurant the morning after a series of deadly attacks in Paris, on Saturday

IANS

The bodies of 103 of the people killed in the terror attacks in Paris have been identified and the others should be identified soon, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday.

"Between 20 and 30" bodies were still pending identification, Valls said.

A total of 129 people were killed and 352 others wounded in Friday's attacks, public prosecutor for Paris, Francois Molins, told reporters on Saturday night.

Two young Mexican women were among those killed in the attacks, the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat said.

Michelli Gil Jaimez, who held dual Mexican and Spanish citizenship, and Nohemi Gonzalez, a Mexican-American student at California State University at Long Beach, both died in the attacks, the secretariat said.

 

The 27-year-old Gil Jaimez, who was from the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz, Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte said in a post on a social network.

Gil Jaimez lived in Paris and had recently posted a message on Facebook about her engagement.

The 23-year-old Gonzalez, born to Mexican parents in the US, was on a study abroad programme in Paris, learning about design.

Spanish diplomats told EFE on Sunday that two more Spaniards were identified as victims, raising the number of people from Spain killed by the terrorists to three.

The victims were identified as Jorge Alonso de Celada and Alberto Pardo Touceda.

Pardo Touceda, born in 1982, was at the Bataclan concert hall, where officials said 89 people were massacred.

De Celada, born in 1956, was killed at a restaurant attacked by the terrorists.

The Spanish government on Saturday identified 29-year-old Juan Alberto Gonzalez Garrido as one of the victims. Gonzalez Garrido was also at the concert hall.

Officials on Sunday identified Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old born in Paris, as one of the three terrorists who carried out the massacre at the concert hall.

Mostefai, who was of Algerian descent, may have travelled to Syria in the winter of 2013-2014.

Investigators identified Mostefai from one of his fingers found at the concert hall, making him the only member of the terrorist cell identified so far.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks in a video and statement.

Investigators are questioning seven people who knew Mostefai, officials said, adding that his father and brother were among the group.

Media reports on Sunday said one of the terrorists passed through Serbia posing as a refugee.

Serbia has identified one of the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks as a refugee who had the initials AA, entered the country on October 7 and requested asylum, the Tanjung news agency reported, citing Serbian interior ministry officials.

The news agency said the interior ministry had confirmed that the information about the man, who was identified by the Serbian daily Blic as Ahmed Almuhamed, matched that of an asylum seeker who entered Greece on October 3 and whose passport was found in Paris at the scene of one of the attacks.

French investigators on Saturday night found a second vehicle used by the terrorists.

Several AK-47 assault rifles were found inside the automobile in Montreuil, a city in the Paris metropolitan area, sources close to the investigation told BFMTV.

The European Union said on Sunday it would hold a special meeting on Friday of interior and justice ministers this week to bolster the bloc's response and discuss anti-terrorist measures.

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First Published: Nov 15 2015 | 8:30 PM IST

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