#rechercheParis Hashtags Helping Families Locate Their Loved Ones

The Hashtag Helping Families Search For Loved Ones In Paris
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The unfolding horror of the Paris terror attacks was captured through the lens of social media.

But now events themselves have ended, online networks are being used to document an all together different situation: the desperate search for missing loved ones.

#rechercheParis#PorteOuverte and #rechercheBataclan are the hashtags curating appeals about those who are missing, while at the same time providing perhaps the clearest example yet of the true human cost of the near-simultaneous incidents.

There are stories of reunions, of those missing being found, and of remarkable escapes.

But harrowing updates, appearing with greater frequency as we enter the second day since the attacks, confirm the worst news.

Here are a small number of the appeals made online. We've included updates where they could be found.

They make for difficult reading

Marie, missing alongside boyfriend Mathias

Update: the worst was confirmed

Hélène Muyal

Émilie since found safe

Cédric Gomet

Christophe Foultier

Cécile and Luis

Pierre

Simon Chadaine

Gilles (left)

Francis

Carla Blouet

Juliette

Update: reportedly safe

Elsewhere, Facebook's safety tool activated on Friday to allow those in Paris to update their friends as to their safety.

Mark Zuckerberg, the site's founder, announced the feature in a status, writing: "My thoughts are with everyone in Paris tonight. Violence like this has no place in any city or country in the world."

Help people find loved ones by re tweeting appeals on the hashtags: #rechercheParis#PorteOuverte and #rechercheBataclan.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

  • 129 dead, French prosecutor says, with 352 injured, 99 critically
  • Locations targeted in suicide bombings and shootings
  • 89 slain at Bataclan concert theatre after hostage situation
  • Restaurants, football stadium attacked in night of horror
  • Police leave cancelled and around 1,500 soldiers mobilised
  • French border controls increased, state of emergency declared
  • Seven extremists in three teams carried out attacks, all killed
  • Manhunt under way for accomplices, arrests made in Brussels after police raids
  • David Cameron chairs meeting of Government Cobra committee
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