France on Tuesday is marking the third anniversary of the country’s deadliest ever terrorist attacks with a procession linking the areas in and around Paris that were struck by jihadist gunmen on November 13, 2015.
The coordinated attacks, in which 130 people were killed, targeted the Stade de France stadium north of Paris as well as several cafes and restaurants in the French capital and the Bataclan concert hall.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will lead commemorations at all six of the targeted sites on Tuesday morning, accompanied by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the ambassadors of several countries.
A cortege will leave the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis to the north of Paris where a suicide bomber killed one person before heading to the bars and cafes and then the Bataclan music hall where two years ago plaques were unveiled bearing the names of all those who were killed.
For the first time, French President Emmanuel Macron will not be attending the ceremonies.
During a trip to Belgium next week, Macron is due to visit the Brussels district of Molenbeek where several of the jihadists behind the Nov. 13 attacks were based.
Electronic billboards around Pars beared the slogan "Fluctuat Nec Mergitur" - the city's motto which became a defiant slogan after the attacks and means "shaken but not sunk."
Molenbeek is also where police in March 2016 arrested fugitive gunman Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the nine-man commando who carried out the attacks.
Relatives of the victims are still waiting for Abdeslam to be put on trial, along with suspected planners of the attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State group. A trial is expected to take place sometime in 2020.
Earlier this year, a Paris court ruled that the French state was not responsible for failing to avert the attacks, dismissing a legal complaint by survivors of the massacre and relatives of the victims.
