PARIS (AP)- Paris’ mayor says the Eiffel Tower will go black at midnight in homage to the victims of the deadly assault in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Via Twitter, Anne Hidalgo addressed her “condolences to the victims’ families” and her “support to the people wounded” after Friday’s attack in which at least 200 people were killed. She said that turning off the lights at the famed Paris monument would send a message of solidarity from the French capital that has itself been the site of a spate of deadly extremist attacks in recent years.
French President Emmanuel Macron also went to Twitter to send his “condolences to the victims of the terrible attack” against Sinai’s Bir El-Abd mosque that was attacked by militants during Friday prayers who targeted worshipers with gunfire.
Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has condemned the extremist attack on a mosque in the troubled Sinai Peninsula, calling it “criminal” and “cowardly” and expressing condolences to the victims and their families.
In a televised statement Friday evening, el-Sissi said that the attack “will not go unpunished” and that Egypt will persevere with its war on terrorism. The suffering of the victims was not in vain, he added, and will only “add to our insistence” to combat terrorism.
Officials said militants in four off-road vehicles bombed the mosque and fired on worshippers during the sermon segment of Friday prayers, killing at least 200 people and wounding some 130.