Updated 6pm
SOME 1.6 MILLION people flooded Paris during today’s massive ‘unity’ rally in a historic display of global defiance against extremism after attacks that left 17 dead this week.
In total, at least 3.7 million people in France marched in the biggest mobilisation ever recorded in the country.
As evening fell, the crowds remained in the city centre, basking in the atmosphere of unity that hung in the air all day.
French President Francois Hollande led the procession from the Place de la Republique, flanked by world leaders, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and followed by a crowd of hundreds of thousands.
Carrying placards and chanting “Charlie! Charlie!” in memory of the journalists and policeman gunned down at the offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on Wednesday, the crowds had been gathering since early this morning.
The crowd was also marking the death of four Jews killed when an Islamist gunman stormed a kosher supermarket and a policewoman gunned down in cold blood.
Emotions ran high in the grieving City of Light, with many of those marching bursting into tears as they came together under the banner of freedom of speech and liberty after France’s worst terrorist bloodbath in more than half a century.
The crowd brandished banners saying: “I’m French and I’m not scared” and, in tribute to the murdered cartoonists, “Make fun, not war” and “Ink should flow, not blood.”
The grieving families of those who died in the shootings led the march, alongside the representatives of around 50 countries.
Patrick Pelloux, a Charlie Hebdo columnist, fell sobbing into the arms of Hollande in an emotional embrace.
In an unprecedented show of unity, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority both attended the rally to honour the victims of three days of bloodshed that claimed the lives of both Jews and a Muslim police officer.
Security was beefed up as the City of Light reels from the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket. Thousands of extra troops and police were also deployed to guard the march and snipers positioned along the route.
“Today, Paris is the capital of the world,” Hollande said earlier.
“The entire country will rise up.”
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Leaders
Along with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, top European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron joined Hollande at the front of the march.
US President Barack Obama was represented by Attorney General Eric Holder.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny also attended today’s event. A spokesperson said this morning that his participation was “a demonstration of Ireland’s solidarity with the French people at this tragic time”.
From New York to Tokyo, similar events have been taking place around the world this weekend.
In Dublin, a silent march in began at The Spire on O’Connell Street at midday, while events were also held in Cork and Galway.
Includes reporting from © AFP, 2015 and Michelle Hennessy.
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