LIVE BLOG: Deadly attacks strike heart of France

There were heated scenes in the northern French city of Lille on Saturday afternoon when anti-Islam demonstrators tried to join a memorial service for those killed in Paris last night.

The small group tried to attend a vigil at Place de la Republique, a central square in the town, chanting loudly, setting off flares and carrying a banner that read "Expel Islamists".

Footage from the scene shows the rest of the crowd turning towards the group and walking slowly towards them, whistling and booing. 

The crowd then takes up a chant of "Dehors les fachos" or "Fascists out" and forces the group out of the square.

A couple who survived last night's attack at a rock gig in Paris say they saw two men and one woman enter the venue before shooting randomly into the crowd.

Upwards of 90 people are thought to have died during the attack at the Bataclan music venue.

Until now all the eight attackers were assumed to be men - now, though, the testimony of a couple who spoke to French radio station Europe1 suggests that one of the perpetrators may have been a woman.

Belgian police say they have made "a number" of arrests on Saturday evening in connection with the attacks in Paris last night. 

Police in the capital Brussels raided the suburb of Molenbeek roughly an hour ago.

Suzanne Lynch, a correspondent for the Irish Times who is on the scene, reports that there is still a heavy police presence after the conclusion of the raid, with sniffer dogs and buildings screened off.

The raid was launched after it was discovered that a car with Belgian numberplates was involved in the Paris attacks.

Belgian media reported that three of the Paris attackers came from the same suburb of Molenbeek.

Heavily armed police searched three properties in Molenbeek, local news site Flanders News reported. 

The bomb disposal unit was on the scene.

Foo Fighters, the world-famous rock band that had been due to play dates in Paris later this month, have announced that they are cancelling the rest of their European tour.

In a statement posted on their Facebook page the band said they had been forced to cancel the remainder of the tour by "this senseless violence, the closing of borders, and international mourning".

"This is crazy and it sucks. Our thoughts are with everyone who was hurt or who lost a loved one."

The worst of Friday's carnage occurred during a concert by US rock band Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan music venue in Paris.

None of the band members are understood to have been hurt, but a British man working selling merchandise for the group is feared dead.

The Syrian passport found near the body of one of last night's attackers was registered in Greece last month, a Greek minister has just told Associated Press.

The same passport was found beside the body of one of the men who launched last night's attacks.

It remains unclear whether the attacker was the same person who registered the passport in October.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have spoken out to condemn yesterday's attacks in Paris.

Bassem Naim, who heads the Council of International Relations for Hamas, told AFP on Saturday afternoon that the group condemns "the acts of aggression and barbarity" that took place in Paris on Friday night.

Islamic Jihad, also speaking to the French agency, decried "a crime against innocents".

As politicians scrambled to condemn the attacks on Saturday morning and suggest a course of action that could prevent further bloodshed, hundreds of people were still frantically searching for lost loved ones missing since the attacks.

A Twitter account has been set up with the handle "Searching for people" - it publishes photos and details of people who have not been seen or heard from since the attacks began on Friday evening.

So far it has published details of almost 30 people.

Most are young, in their teens and twenties, and many are known to have attended a rock concert at the Bataclan music venue, which last night became the scene of by far the bloodiest attack of the night.

An Air France has been grounded at Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands after security services reported a threatening Tweet.

Flight AF1741 was scheduled to take off from Amsterdam for Paris on Saturday afternoon.

However, shortly before takeoff all passengers were evacuated and the plane was searched after a threat was posted on Twitter.

The area around the plane was closed during the search and passengers on the observation deck inside the airport were asked to leave. 

Gates at Terminal C of Schipol Airport were also closed off, with hundreds of travellers stuck in the reception area.

Poland will refuse to take in refugees allocated to it under a European Union programme meant to share responsibility among the body's 28 member states in the midst of this year's border crisis.

The country's incoming European affairs minister Konrad Szymanski, elected last month when his right-wing Law and Justice Party won over a third of the vote, wrote an article on Saturday about the "tragic" events in Paris last night.

"The European Council's decisions on the relocation of refugees and immigrants to all EU countries, which we criticised, are part of European law," Szymanski wrote.

"After the tragic events of Paris we do not see the political possibility of respecting them."

Poland had previously agreed to take in 4,500 refugees under the plan. 

A French far-right leader on Saturday also used referenced a need to "recapture control of [France's] borders" in the aftermath of the attacks.

Marine Le Pen, who heads the National Front and yesterday topped a presidential poll ahead of elections in 2017, spoke on French television, saying:

"France must determine who its friends are and who its enemies are. France's enemies are those who maintain links with Islamism. 

"Once and for all, France must recapture control of its borders."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given orders to his security apparatus to give France "all possible assistance" as it begins to investigate how at least eight attackers managed to carry out highly co-ordinated attacks in the capital last night, Le Monde reports.

As early investigations begin, with medical experts saying they believe the suicide bomber were aged between just 15 and 18, chaos still reigns in Paris as families continue to search for missing loved ones.

A telephone specially set up to help those searching for relatives is reportedly inundated with calls. Many bodies of those who died in the Bataclan music venue were not removed until Saturday because the focus was on evacuating the injured to hospitals and makeshift medical centres.

Many of the victims had their belongings, including identifying documents and cards, in the venue's cloakroom when the violence broke out, reports French daily Liberation, making identifying the dead a more complex and lengthy process.

A Syrian passport was found with the body of one of last night's attackers, the Associated Press is reporting. 

It remains unclear exactly how many attackers there were, although it is thought there were eight. In a statement otherwise fairly vague on details of the attack, Islamic State claimed eight "soldiers of the Caliphate" had perpetrated it.

News that one of the attackers may have been Syrian will raise fears among many about the potential repercussions on the hundreds of thousands of Syrians currently attempting to travel to and within Europe to claim asylum.

Concerns were raised last night when a fire broke out at the refugee camp in Calais, where thousands of people are living in squalid conditions as they attempt to reach the UK.

Many reported that the fire was the result of a reprisal arson attack in the wake of the Paris killings, but it later transpired that a candle people were using to keep warm had caught on one of the tents in high winds.