at. they believe they heard shots somewhere outside the hotel. where i m standing right now is in front of a campaign with chairs strewn everywhere, glass everywhere, people panicked at the activity here. some people ran in the basement, but the sidewalk littered with glass as people were out enjoying an evening dining simply flee left their tables and glasses went flying everywhere. we don t know exactly what s happened if this is another one of the scares in a rattled city or what. but again, our crew members at the hotel in the les halles area believe they ve heard shots. we ll try to get a handle on it. we were trying to chase some of the police vehicles but they re going in all different directions. people are wondering what s going on. the jitters here are real, and they are toxic. for obviously good reason. lester, we re showing a picture of an empty place de la
break. okay. which is not good because we know how many people gathered there right in front of the notre dame cathedral. everyone going in for that service which is under way to honor those that were killed. all right. so, lester, where is your crew right now? is everybody inside? we re spread out. several people with me right now. the folks in the hotel had called in to us and explained what they had heard and we re trying to piece this together. is this one situation or two? the sirens have stopped in the last few minutes. don t know what to make of that. we i ve been in the place de la republique earlier, and it was jam packed with people. it s hard to believe, you re seeing people having left that area. that was the gathering spot. has been the gathering spot for people to leave their memorials and tributes. lots of families out there today.
these panicked parisians. has anyone been able to tell you exactly what they were running from? i ll tell you, we came here, we re in a building couple blocks away with about a hundred people on the top floor. there are girls crying here, people on their phones trying to figure out what happened. we re watching french television here which now shows people going back into the place de la republique. i ve never seen a crowd move that size with such panic. really fleeing any direction they could. it gives you a measure of the level of concern in paris right now. i ve talked to a lot of people here to say did you hear gunfire, no one can say that. it was enough for one person to be nervous to get the whole crowd moving. i ll tell you, i have never seen anything like it.
welcome back to our coverage from paris. i m anderson cooper p i m christiane amanpour. this is the plaza of de la republique. shock and grief, first charlie hebdo, now in the last few days from what happened on friday the 13th in paris. the death toll stands at 132. there are more than 350 people wounded, 99 of them are very seriously wounded. and there is ongoing investigations obviously and, anderson, there are so many bits of this puzzle to still put together. there certainly is. there was an incident here about two hours ago or so. there was some conflicting information, police drew out their guns. there was some concern perhaps that some shots had been fired. there s no evidence there were shots fired, but this entire square immediately cleared out as police took cover, lots of people took cover. it basically kind of dissipated over the course of 20 minutes or
national. he s been identified as a french national. it is someone who is a suspect. that is the official categorization of him by french police. they are seeking him in connection with the paris attacks on friday. there s been some questioning whether there were seven or eight attackers. there are seven known to be dead. whether there was an eighth remains in question. whether this man is being sought as the potential eighth suspect, hands-on suspect, in those terror attacks on friday we do not know. he has been identified. french police know who he is. he is a french national. this is really the beginning of a panic, if not even a stampede to exit the place de la republique where people had gathered to pay tribute to those who had died and come together in solidarity. people around this memorial,