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Live Coverage of the Terror Attacks in Paris; Aired 3-4p ET

Aired November 14, 2015 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:00:00] ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: We are just about now 24 hours since a horrific and tightly organized series of attacks that the president of France calls an act of war and ISIS calls merely the first of the storm.

I want everyone to understand. I am standing here in Paris. But right behind me, right behind me, you can see the Bataclan, the club where we now as of the latest count, 89 people lost their lives last night in a bloody point-blank shootout inside. The death toll, we now understand from France officials, for all of these coordinated attacks is now 129. A number that will go higher.

One of them was an American college student from California. More than 350 people are hurt and 99 of them are critically injured right now. This was a coordinated series of bomb blasts, shootings outside of stadium, inside the conference hall -- a concert hall, and several cafes, many of which were in this area. One of them 19 people died at less than a mile, about ten blocks from where we were standing right now.

ISIS says there were eight attackers armed with automatic rifles wrapped in explosives. The French now say there were seven attackers in three teams. They say all of them were killed. One of them was a French national known to police. Police though are scrambling to track down any possible accomplices. That search today went to Belgium, 1,500 French soldiers in the meantime are deploying around France trying to prevent further attacks because there's simply so many questions and so much fear about how deep these networks may have been.

Our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto is on the ground with me in Paris.

And Jim, this is the real fear. You have this many people involved. They had the weapons that they had, they had explosives. They had suicide vests or belts or whatever it was that all were identical and matched. This wasn't just those seven people.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No, it was not. They believe that there would have been a support network to allow those seven people to carry out the attacks they did here. This was the Mumbai style attack that U.S. western officials have been worrying about since we saw Mumbai take place in India and now it's happened here. So what we know now, seven attackers working in three groups. They use both explosive vests as well as Kalashnikovs of rifles and automatic weapons so common in the Middle East to carry out. And they fired a lot of bullets. We know that just at the restaurant down the street here where more than 10 people were killed, there were 100 bullet casings on the ground. So they were well- prepared, they were well-armed, they were well-supplied.

At this point, we know that one of them was French. He was from the south of Paris. He was known to French authorities, he had been radicalized in 2010. But they had no knowledge that he was involved in terrorism. And that's why he was still allowed to be walking --

BURNETT: Do they knew that he was back in the country or did they not know? Do we even know that yet?

SCIUTTO: We don't know what his travel was. But they did know of him. Now, this is a problem that we ran into with the Charlie Hebdo attacks which took place just a five-minute walk in this direction. That that Koachi brothers who carried out that horrible, horrible attack were also known to French police. And one of them, in fact, had been under surveillance and then they stopped surveillance. So here, you have a case where this person was known to have been radicalized, but they did not know that he was involved in terrorism. So they were not surveilling him. And this is a trouble in France. You can say that they made a mistake, but France has hundreds of suspected jihadi. They just don't have the ability to track all of them.

BURNETT: I think that's the point. Because some people may be watching and saying, how could they have missed this after Charlie Hebdo? How could they have made such a mistake? But I think the context you're putting around this is so important.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BURNETT: Which is, there are too many people.

SCIUTTO: You're right.

BURNETT: Who have come back into this country who are radicalized for them to actually trap. It's an impossible attack.

SCIUTTO: Hundreds. A multiple of what we have in the U.S. In the U.S. they talk about dozens. That's a serious number in a country of 300 million people. Here, a smaller country, they have hundreds perhaps thousands. And if you surveil just one of them, you need a good ten operatives, agents to do that per person. So you need thousands of agents in this country. And no country really has the ability to do that. So that is the problem.

But here is the thing. It may be impossible to track everybody. But here is the failure. Here is the worse in failure here. This was a coordinated large attack. It appears to have extended outside of France. You had an arrest in Germany a few days ago that they believe is tied. You have these raids now in Belgium which they believe are tied. So it's an international plot. President Hollande himself said that this is one that had local support but appeared to have plotting direction from ISIS itself. In light of the state of terror alert that this country has under,

particularly after Charlie Hebdo, that they missed an attack like this, that's a problem. And I don't want to jump on the police. They have a very difficult job. But it does show you the difficulty of preventing attacks like this. So even with all the resources you can imagine.

BURNETT: It perhaps shows it is impossible unless you deal with Syria itself.

SCIUTTO: Exactly.

BURNETT: That that's continue to happen.

All right. Jim Sciutto is going to stay with me because he did have a chance to speak to someone who knows one of the victims of this attack that we are just starting to learn more about.

I want to go to Pamela Brown, though, right now because as we learn more details about these victims, we have found out one of them was an American, a 23-year-old college student. I want to bring in Pamela Brown now.

Pamela, what are you learning about Nohemi Gonzalez?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are learning according to the university that she is 23 years old. That's according to a spokesperson. And her name is Nohemi Gonzalez. And she was studying abroad. She was studying design in Paris and had been there for the semester. One of nearly 80 foreign exchange students. And she apparently was killed in one of the attacks at the restaurants there in Paris.

The community, the University of California Long Island is still, you know, mourning the loss of the student and will be holding a vigil tomorrow on campus at 4:00 p.m. for all the students, I should say California State Long Beach as a correction there. They will be holding a vigil for the student there tomorrow.

And officials up this hour are still trying to identify the bodies. That the toll could rise. And there are a lot of people concerns because their loved ones are there in Paris just like Nohemi was and studying there. Universities have been posting online saying that they have accounted for all of their students. But there is a high level of concern, still, for the other bodies that have been accounted for at this hour, Erin.

[15:05:07] BURNETT: And Pamela, I want to ask you one other question as we are finding out, you know, around the world. They are beefing up security. There is concern about whether there could be a follow on attacks or attacks that are inspired or motivated by these. And you are learning more about what the NFL is doing in light of what happened here outside that football stadium last night.

BROWN: That's right. In fact, we are just getting the statement in right now, Erin. And the NFL saying that in addition to the security measures already in place, already approved by the department of homeland security that it is beefing up the presence, law enforcement presence both inside the stadium for football games happening this weekend and beyond and outside the stadiums in the parking lots.

In addition, it is asking people attending the games to not bring bags when they come to the stadium. But if they do, if they have to bring a bag, the statement says it is essential to bring one in compliance with the clear bag policy. Meaning that the bag should be made of clear plastic, of vinyl, or PVC and not exceed 12 by 6 by 12.

It is asking the fans to cooperate with this. They will have more people at the doors monitoring, screening fans as they go into the football games this weekend. This has caught the attention of people, really, across the United States whose job it is to secure these types of facilities. And after the attacks there in Paris, Erin, we have seen across the country that officials are beefing up security everywhere. In Los Angeles, in New York, as well. They are beefing up security at soft targets and sensitive sites. And now we are learning the NFL is doing the same - Erin.

BURNETT: Pamela Brown, thank you very much.

And I want to bring Jim Sciutto back here.

Pam telling us the latest that we know about this young woman doing what is a right of passage for many lucky young Americans to travel overseas and spend some of their college here and you see her face.

SCIUTTO: Young girls, and I had the opportunity to speak to a fellow student of hers, someone that reached out to me via social media to study with her at California State University. And I'm just going to read my notes here so I get this right because she just had a moment to describe what she was like.

She said she was vibrant and energetic. She always made everyone feel welcome. She was genuine, she was kind, she was passionate. And she came here as you and I did when we were young to study abroad to fulfill a dream. And she was until this happened just down the street from us here at this restaurant.

And another thing that her friend mentioned, which is something I think many of us can relate to is that she came here knowing that there were some risks in studying abroad, but not this risk, you know. You think of maybe difficulty travelling but you don't think of the risk of death on the streets of Paris. So here is a young 23-year-old American who came here with the highest hopes. Sweet as can be, described by her friends, and she lost her life.

BURNETT: Jim, thank you.

It is hard to even hear those words. And just think that each of these individual numbers is a life that was extinguished so prematurely in such a horrific way.

It is unclear whether any attackers got away at this hour. And that is a big question. Who else is involved? Could there be more? Police are now searching the city for possible accomplices. We are also learning new information about a series of raids in Brussels.

And I want to get straight to our national correspondent Deb Feyerick.

Deb, you are learning a lot more about these raids as they are desperately trying to find out who else might have been involved to stop any sorts of follow attacks that might be planned. What can you tell us?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And they're very, very worried at this point. And yet we heard from the deputy mayor who spoke here last night who basically said, look, the attack is contained. But, in fact, could it start up, again, tomorrow, or the next day.

There are three teams that hit multiple locations. We know that the first team hit the restaurant as well as the theater. The second team hit the stadium and locations outside. And really what investigators were looking at right now was who designed the suicide vests. Who built the actual bombs? Who provided the Kalashnikovs, the guns?

This does not appear to have been just sort of a couple of friends who got together and figured this all out. What we do know is that Belgian authorities did carry out several raids in the Mullen deck neighborhood of Belgium. I'm told by a source that at least one of the raids involved a person directly connected to the attacks in Paris.

Now, investigators were able to trace the homes in the Belgian -- in Belgium, because a car rented by one of the suspected terrorists was found near the stadium and had information linking that car to the Mullen deck area. And that's why they were there searching.

This investigation is fanning out all across Europe. And we are hearing of other investigations. One in the area where a man was stop on November 5th. He had a car that he was driving to Germany. That car was also when searched filled with many weapons including Kalashnikovs grenades, explosives, revolvers.

So all authorities are now looking very carefully to see who has been arrested in the last couple of weeks, what they were arrested for, and where their connections may be. Because this is, you have to think of this almost like an enormous spider web that is stretching across that region. And they're looking to see what links they can make between arrests, let's say in Belgium and France or Germany, anywhere to try to identify who these people are and whether they're part of something much larger, Erin.

[15:11:46] BURNETT: Deborah, thank you very much.

I'm joined now here in Paris by Simon Kuper, a resident of the city. A columnist for the "Financial Times." He was at the stadium when two suicide bombers struck just outside the gates.

And Simon, what's your understanding of what happened? Was that an attack thwarted? That they were trying to get inside the stadium. What was their intent as far as you understand it at this time? SIMON KUPER, COLUMNIST, FINANCIAL TIMES: It seems that at least one

of have a match stick (ph) was trying to get himself into the stadium. We now know to blow himself up there. Probably that was the plan to blow yourselves up in the stadium on live TV with 80,000 people there and cause even greater carnage than we actually had last night by a very large factor. So luckily, as steward refused to let one of these guys in and they went off and they blew themselves up elsewhere killing, I think, up to five people, but causing a lot less damage than they could have done.

BURNETT: I mean, it's difficult to comprehend. In terms of why he was turned away, though, obviously it wasn't because they knew what was attached to him or they would have had someone come to arrest him. Or do we know the terms that why he was turn away at this time or still a question?

KUPER: Not precisely, no. I mean, a steward has said that he turned the guy away. And clearly didn't know he was wearing a suicide vest, but he must have been a fairly suspicious looking person.

BURNETT: And when you were there, you heard the explosions. You know, we now, people have seen the video. We'll show it again. The explosions happened. The game continues. Was that purposeful that the game continued? That they knew what was happening but they wanted to finish the game to prevent panic? Was it unclear at the time, though?

KUPER: It was an unfolding situation. We didn't know what was going on. And there were two explosions within about three minutes of each other in the first half. And the first half, people kind of chuckled thinking it was (INAUDIBLE). Already that was obviously that was not the case because it was much louder. Second explosion, the ground shook a bit. And --

BURNETT: So you knew? You knew?

KUPER: I thought something bad is happening. There was. And it took 20, 25 minutes before the first report on French news sites saying there has been an explosion. What kind of an explosion outside the stadium? It was huge uncertainty. France scored a goal about 20 minutes (INAUDIBLE) and people cheered. And even in the second half.

BURNETT: Twenty minutes after the bombs went off?

KUPER: Yes.

BURNETT: France scored.

KUPER: And there was a huge cheering. And then in the second half when people are getting news on their phones of massive shootings in Paris, France scored again. But this time I was not watching the game. But people cheered, again. There was even a Mexican wave in the first half, which doesn't show people were callous. It shows people didn't know what was happening and how close they came to have something really terrible happen right there. BURNETT: And in terms of who was there. Obviously, we know that the

president of France from our reporting was there, was then moved to a safe location. Was that just coincidence that he was there? Or was that a targeting? Or again, these are the questions we're simply trying to find answers to right now, but don't get to know.

KUPER: We don't know that the suicide bombers knew that he would be there, whether that was part of their plan. I mean, it would be very hard for them to get close to the president because there would be body guards around (INAUDIBLE). So probably their aim was to do it on live TV. They may not even known he was there. And he left the game to attend to what was happening in central Paris.

BURNETT: All right. Simon, thank you very much. I'll be talking to you, again, very soon.

And Paris attacks highlighting the problem of securing a massive city in a free and democratic country that values those two words so much. One French Senate member getting candid about what she calls a quote "hell of a problem."

This is CNN special live coverage. We will be back with that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:30] BURNETT: We now know that three coordinated teams of terrorists are behind the worst attacks France has seen since World War II.

We welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world this hour as we try to find more and more out about these horrific attacks. A fascinating story. We know at this moment, 129 people have lost their live lives, 99 more in critical condition as I speak. An American college student among the dead. Hundreds more injured.

The French president, Francois Hollande, vowing a merciless response. Calling this a war. And within this French city, anger is mounting.

I want to bring in CNN's John Berman.

And John, you had a chance to speak to a French senator talking about what I think is so hard for people to understand and why this is so frightening. Which is how could this happen here? A city that was -- if you can use this word, so prepared and so expectant of something horrible happening.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They had been on this heightened state of alert since January, since the attacks of Charlie Hebdo, a five minute walk from here. In two weeks, you have all of the world leaders coming here to talk about climate change. I can't imagine a more heightened state of alert. It's a country that knows it has a problem with forces, with people going to fight with ISIS and coming back.

And I spoke to this French senator. Christiane Amanpour and I spoke to Natalie Goulet who is a senator but also overseas, the committee of central homeland security committee, the equivalent of that here. And she basically said, that even though we know everything that is going on, it's still almost an impossible problem to solve. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:20:03] NATALIE GOULET, FRENCH SENATOR: You cannot put a policeman behind everybody because we don't have the financial access.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of them, apparently, was known to the police. This French one was known to the police.

GOULET: We have known because we find the fingerprint.

AMANPOUR: But he was known before.

BERMAN: But you knew of him before?

GOULET: Yes. Of course. Because of that --you know, all the French people do not have the fingerprint on the database.

BERMAN: If you knew about him before, how did he slip through?

GOULET: (INAUDIBLE), all of the big murderer we had last time were also known before they were acting like that.

BERMAN: It's a real problem.

GOULET: It is a hell of a problem. It is a hell of a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: She said it's a hell of a problem. But saying you cannot have a police person behind every person.

BERMAN: Behind every person. Not even a person who they had their eyes on since 2010. One of the people, one of the terrorists now, one of the ones they have identified with, the French citizen, they matched his fingerprint. They know who he was since 2010. They say he had been radicalized. He never carried out a terrorist act. Well, but they knew who he was. They couldn't watch him closely enough to keep him from doing this. That's a hell of a problem.

BURNETT: It is. And as Jim was talking about, they have hundreds, like thousands of people who have, either fought in Iraq and Syria and returned, who had been radicalized by those who did and to track them, he is saying they say is 10-1. You'd have to have ten counterterror officials per person. It's an impossible task for this country which raises the stakes of what they will do to fight back.

Francois Hollande saying fearless response saying this is war. You can't then say we are just going to do a few more airstrikes. That is the thing. This has now completely changed the conflict in Syria. Not just for France, but for the world.

BERMAN: Well, he is at war now, says Francois Hollande. Perhaps war in Iraq and Syria. But how do you fight that war here in France? Because as you say there are no airstrikes to do here in France. It all has to be done with intelligence work and ground work.

BURNETT: No. And no airstrikes. And again, just to say, we are standing on the street there. Standing on the street where just behind us last night, people were out, having a Friday night right there. And you see it. You see that awning and it brings home the normalcy of what that moment was before something so horrific happens.

BERMAN: But it is a battle zone right now. Make no mistake.

BURNETT: It's now a war zone.

BERMAN: So when you hear President Obama say that ISIS has been contained as he said, you know, in an interview with "Good Morning America" just yesterday, contained to Iraq and Syria. Well, ISIS doesn't think so. They take the warzone and battles as being fought here in this theater behind us.

BURNETT: All right. And certainly it's not just ISIS doesn't think so. I think it's fair to say at this point ISIS was right. Contained would not be the right word.

John Berman, thank you very much here in Paris. And a blaze of gun shots ringing out at popular Paris restaurant.

Up next, you are going to hear how a California businessman survived the bloody attack. He will join me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:08] BURNETT: I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris. And this is CNN's special live coverage of the horrific attacks across this city, a coordinated and sophisticated attack of terror. ISIS claiming responsibility. The president of France saying that it was, indeed, ISIS.

More than 120 are dead, hundreds of others now fighting for their lives, 99 of whom we understand at this hour are in critical condition here in Paris tonight.

Now, the targets were -- it was a beautiful night, people were out, people were eating at cafes, and some of the targets were just people doing that. Popular Paris restaurant among them. And my next guest Noah Neiman, an American businessman. He was near a (INAUDIBLE) Cambodian restaurant when the attackers opened fire. So tell me what happened. What did you see?

NOAH NEIMAN, WITNESSED RESTAURANT ATTACK: First, I heard lots of loud noises that were gun shots. And I thought they were, but my friends thought they were fireworks or something else. And I stood up to sort of peek around the corner to see what was happening. And I saw half a dozen people. They were more running at me, looked like they were running for their lives.

BURNETT: You were eating at a restaurant. NEIMAN: Yes.

BURNETT: You were sitting at a cafe outside.

NEIMAN: Yes.

BURNETT: So the thought that you have today must be intense emotion of sorrow but gratefulness that you are alive.

NEIMAN: Yes. I have been trying not to think about it too much.

BURNETT: And you saw those people running towards you?

NEIMAN: Yes.

BURNETT: Did you see any of the people who had attacked them? Did you see what had happened at all?

NEIMAN: No. But from the looks on their faces, I knew that something very bad was happening to them, I wanted to get away.

BURNETT: And so then, what happened?

NEIMAN: So when I turned to run in the direction they were coming. And then there were people coming at me from that direction, as well. So the black as a triangle and people had run away from the Cambodian restaurant and turn the corner and were coming at me from both sides away from the restaurant. So then I ran into the restaurant where I was sitting outside.

BURNETT: And then there were people hiding under tables? I mean, what was happening? Because at that time, I would imagine you had no idea of anything other than people are full of terror and you had heard all sorts of gun shots.

NEIMAN: Right. So I made my way to the back of a restaurant and there was a stairwell down to the basement. So I went down to the basement. A colleague of mine convinced a mother who was dining with her young children to follow us and they became very distraught. We found --

BURNETT: The children?

NEIMAN: The children were very distraught. The mother was distraught, which was unsettling for everyone. We found a door in the basement that led through a hallway to another door that led to an apartment building and our first reaction was, let's go there. But then we thought, we'll wait in the basement and see if the gunman comes into the restaurant, and then we can escape later.

BURNETT: So you were trying to find some -- you had at that time a sense of fear if you didn't want to be trapped.

NEIMAN: Absolutely.

[15:30:04] BURNETT: In a closed room if they were going and hunting for people. And had you walked by the Cambodian restaurant before you sat down? I mean, did you see people dining moments later?

NEIMAN: I don't know.

It was the first time I'd ever been in that neighborhood. It was at night. I'm not really sure how we got there, you know, I just knew where we were going. I was following the map.

BURNETT: And no, right behind us, of course, is Bataclan where so many people were mercilessly slaughtered point-blank right behind us. Where you were is near here. I mean, it was within a few blocks or so. To give people a sense of the proximity, right?

NEIMAN: Yes.

BURNETT: And when you had a moment after, in the first moment you had a chance to think about what had just happened, how did you process that?

NEIMAN: I don't think I have.

BURNETT: It's sort of still a fear o or --

NEIMAN: I'm afraid of what will happen when I process it. So I haven't yet.

BURNETT: And what did your family say when you talked to them?

NEIMAN: I told my wife that I was fine and that she should not watch TV for a while because --

BURNETT: What did she say?

NEIMAN: She said, OK, we'll talk about when you get home.

BURNETT: Well, I'm sure that you will. And thank you very much for joining us. Noah Neiman.

And we have more breaking news. We are learning what types of explosives the attackers had and just how easy they are to make. This is stunning as I'm looking down here. As this is coming in, we are going to be telling you these are things you could buy at even a beauty store. That is just one example. Something that might just be as simple as being in nail polish. We are going to have all of that coming up.

Plus, ISIS threatening more attacks, promising this one here in Paris is just a first of a storm. This is CNN's special coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:] BURNETT: Welcome back. I'm Erin Burnett in Paris. This is our special coverage of the attacks that have shaken France and shocked the entire world.

Here is what we know, the latest at this hour. Investigators in Belgium are making several arrests in raids that are said to be connected to the terror here. The French say the actual attackers, seven men in three teams with identical bombs and rifles are dead. They do not know how many more may be involved, how many accomplices, how big this network may have been.

One hundred twenty-nine innocent people are dead, as well. One of them a college student from California, 99 critically injured people fighting for their lives tonight. All in, 350 others hurt and injured.

Joining me now, the former CIA counterterrorism analyst and national security editor for the blaze.com Buck Sexton. Also, joined now by CNN intelligence and security analyst, Bob Baer, a former CIA operative for decades, including in the war against terror. And thank you both very much for being with me.

Bob, I want to start with you. We have breaking details that we are getting now on the explosives that were used. Authorities are telling our Pamela Brown TATP is the explosive, which is very easy to make. They are saying you need acetone and peroxide. It can be done by going to a beauty supply store. They are saying these are materials that could be, for example, in something as simple and as mundane as hair coloring or bleach containing peroxide. What does that say to you?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: This stuff is very easy to make. It's very easy to cook at home. You simply, you boil down peroxide to about 30 percent. And from that point, you mix it with acetone, detonators made from acetone peroxide is probably can take ten.

Erin, I could teach you how to make this in a couple of hours, we could cook up a batch anywhere. And as long as you have good ventilation, it's not detectable. It's a pushing explosive. It's very easy to make.

BURNETT: And Bob, when you hear that they were able to do this, obviously, the trail now is going to go on where they may have purchased it whether it was at some sort of a beauty supply store, or whether it was possibly at a factory, or something that may have been making the peroxide, the acetone. But that is going to be the path that they are now desperately trying to reconstruct so very quickly to see if there are more attackers and more bombs out there.

BAER: There's no end to, the peroxide is very easy to obtain in the beauty salon, as you said. And it's a matter of having a better practice with these things at making detonators and they're getting this experience in Syria and Iraq and places like that where they've got ranges where they can show them how to make this. So this is isn't like buying explosives. You can get the manufacturer and the suppliers, anybody can make this stuff.

BURNETT: Buck Sexton, I want to ask you about how long this may have taken to plan. Because obviously French authorities knew that something may have been in the works. They didn't know what. And they did obviously were not aware of something so sophisticated and so coordinated and so many locations. One French counterterror expert telling me earlier today that this could have taken months to plan. Would you think it would take that long to organize this?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it definitely took at least weeks, if not months to plan this kind of attack based on the specific sites. The symbolism of attacking the Stade de France last night, you had France playing Germany. This is clearly something they thought out beforehand. It wasn't just a random target of opportunity. The sites they chose all sort of go towards a general war on all of French society declared by the Islamic state. They said they picked them out precisely. Obviously they didn't run into much resistance at any of these sites. And so, I think that the surveillance aspect of this is pretty clear.

And going backwards, though, of what may have been missed. What French authorities may not have picked up on, there is a fire hose of constant threat reporting coming in right now the French across the EU and quite frankly here in the United States as well because of, as Bob mentioned, this pipeline of those who go to Syria and come back out. And they return to their home countries. And in some cases they're known, and in some cases the authorities have no idea. So there is constant reporting coming in. I think in retrospect, they will be of the piece summing together. They will get a much clearer sense of how long it took to put this together.

But quite honestly, it's very difficult to deter 100 percent of plots like this when you have thousands of people who are getting exactly the kind of training Bob's talking about with building these explosives. The sort of trend you pick your targets to do the surveillance without alerting the authorities. The French security services are good. So the training aspect I think here played a role. And unfortunate, the casualty count was much higher in what we have seen in other ISIS-inspired or ISIS directed attacks.

[15:40:14] BURNETT: Bob Baer, in terms of who did this, one of them a French national apparently already known to police, known to police for years as someone who had been radicalized. But they weren't obviously tracking him. We are now hearing reports of one if not more Syrian passports, which could mean these are the actual passports of the attackers, I mean, that they were hiding among the refugees. That these are passports that had been processed through Greece as part of the incredible and unprecedented flow of refugees coming into Europe.

If it is true that these members of ISIS, these people who took out these attacks were hiding among the refugees from Syria, what will that mean?

BAER: Well, what does it mean for us? Last night, I was in touch with several security officials, and police officials in California. And they were saying that they are really very concerned about people with no documentation coming from Syria showing up at our borders, claiming political asylum. It's very easy to get in. They are claiming to be yasidis or whatever. And I said how serious is this threat and they came back with one text, they are here.

It's very alarming. Our laws cannot cope with these asylum seekers. We just cannot identify them. And ICE has a terrible job doing this. So I think it is very real. And I don't like to be alarmed or stunned this. But after Paris, I don't say that it can't be.

We have a problem inside the country just as the French do. And these people have learned, just Buck was saying. They go to these wars. They learned how to run communications. And build explosives and come in this country and attack us. And, you know, the FBI is on top of this just as the French are. But the metadata and the rest of it is only good after, as it turns out now, good after the attack occurs.

BURNETT: Bob Baer and Buck Sexton, thanks very much to both of you.

And next, what we are learning, we are getting disturbing new video from the scene just behind me, the Bataclan concert. Concert goers raced for their lives last night desperately trying to escape. You will hear the gun shots. You will experience just a little bit so you can viscerally feel a bit of fear they must have felt here last night.

And we will have the new details as we are breaking them on the 352 people right now in the hospital injured. We'll be right back.

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[15:46:254] BURNETT: I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris. And I'm standing outside the Bataclan concert hall. We have some breaking details coming from the Paris prosecutor that are very, very hard to hear about what happened here 24 hours ago. We want to show you some video that is very hard to see first. This was shot by a reporter by the French newspaper (INAUDIBLE). What you'll see is concertgoers pouring into a side street, hanging out the windows, gunfire clearly heard on the inside. Again, I want to warn you, this is disturbing to watch. But as we try to understand the scale of what happened here, we think it is important for you to see it.

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BURNETT: And that was very hard to watch. We now have new details coming in from the Paris prosecutor about what happened just behind me. And to give everyone a sense of this, just this -- what is now a war zone but, yes, just yesterday 24 hours ago was a normal street in Paris. Young concertgoers going right behind me to the Bataclan, which is right behind the awning, right behind that police van.

Here is the latest that we are hearing from the Paris prosecutor about what happened. It started around 9:40 p.m. here in Paris. And the entire horrific attack of these people fighting for their lives went on for two hours and 40 minutes. We understand there were three attackers, they drove up right on the street behind where I'm standing in a Volkswagen polo, a black Volkswagen polo. They got out with assault rifles. They went into this nightclub and began opening fire as the performance was underway.

This then is hard to read, hard to share with you. But this is what the Paris prosecutor's telling us. That they then took members of the audience hostage and they grouped them up around the stage and shot them. And that is where they found the majority of the bodies. We now have counted 89 people who were slaughtered at the Bataclan behind me. That they are saying that they group them up around the stage and then shot them point-blank there. And that's where they found most of those bodies.

The attackers then gave a brief address to others in the room mentioning Syria and Iraq. The Bataclan then was stormed by police special forces around 12:40. So it was about two hours and 40 minutes that this was happening.

I want to go to Ben Wedeman.

Ben, it leaves you a bit speechless to even try to read and share this. As we are learning it to comprehend what people went through as they were gathered, taken hostage and regrouped in front of that stage.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's these details that the people of Paris have been inundated with over the last 24 hours of disturbing last 24 hours, indeed. Now, we know that in addition to the death toll of more than 120, there are almost 100 people still in critical condition from this series of unprecedented attacks.

And driving around Paris this evening, we saw that we saw that very few people out in the street, much less traffic than you would expect a Saturday night. But many people despite the caution by the government for people to stay inside have come here to (INAUDIBLE) where they have taken this monument behind me as a place to pay their respects for the dead. We have seen people come in lighting candles, bringing flowers. And more than anything, expressing solidarity with the victims of this attack.

People saying that they now realize that France is in a state of war after these attacks. But they also understand that it's an opportunity, it's a time really to show that they have not become the victims of terror, that they are not going to be terrorized. One elderly woman resident of Paris telling us that everybody should come out and show that the values that France holds so dear should remain in place and that people should come and pay their respects in places like this and not be afraid.

And this is interesting, because just nearby there's a police car with a loud speaker on top. Every once in a while they come out with an announcement telling people to go home, to not stay here, that they should not be assembling in public, but clearly, the people of Paris have a completely different idea. They insist that life must go on - Erin.

BURNETT: Ben Wedeman, thank you.

And many now hearing an attack like the ones we have seen in Paris could happen elsewhere, could happen on American soil.

Up next, what authorities are doing to ramp up security in the United States and around the world?

This is CNN special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:50:10] BURNETT: I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris just 24 hours after the wave of terror attacks here. Security is now stepped up around the world, including in New York City. And I want to go live to CNN's Polo Sandoval in Washington Square Park in New York City.

And I want to go live to CNN's Polo Sandoval who is in Washington Square Park in New York City.

Polo, what has been the response there by U.S. authorities?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, I can tell you not only a tremendous show of security, but also solidarity here in New York City. This is almost become the center of support for many people since living in New York City.

If you look over my shoulder, there's a large crowd that's gathered here. They have been here for hours, sending a strong message for the people of Paris. In fact, some city workers here in the process of actually changing some of the bulbs up overhead, according to police, to tremendous symbolism here. You're looking at what is really a smaller version of what we see in the French capital here.

And earlier today, not only a crowd of supporters, but also New York mayor Bill de Blasio meeting with supporters here, calling New York to come together as really now both Paris and New York very familiar with the ugly face of terrorism. Take a listen.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: We can teach a lesson to the world because of what we went through on 9/11, 14 years ago. The only answer to terrorism is to be resolute and not allow the terrorists to change who we are. We must refuse to be terrorized. We won't change our democracy. We won't change our values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And that response from the mayor of New York City. Our Polo Sandoval there in Washington Square Park, thanks to you.

Please stay with CNN. Our coverage of the Paris terror attacks continues live from Paris right after this break.

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