Thousands gather in Paris as France remembers terrorism victims

Thousands have gathered in Paris as President Francois Hollande led a commemoration for the victims of terrorist attacks last year.

On Sunday, Hollande and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, unveiled laid a wreath by the statute of Marianne in the Place de la Republique in memory of those killed in a series of attacks that shook France, almost a year to the day when more than a million people marched in Paris to protect killings at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The statute has become a shrine to the 17 victims of the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish deli, and to the 130 people shot dead by militants on November 13 at a concert, and in bars and restaurants in Paris.

“To the victims of the terrorist attacks in January and November … In this place, the people of France pay their respect,” read a metal plaque unveiled by Holland and Hidalgo under a newly planted memorial oak tree on Place de la Republique in eastern Paris.

 Neither Hollande or Hidalgo spoke at the ceremony, but veteran French rock star Johnny Hallyday, accompanied only by a guitar, sang a song about the march on January 11 last year, which brought out the biggest crowds in Paris since the liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany in 1944.

The huge square in eastern Paris, the focal point of the January 2015 march attended by dozens of world leaders walking arm in arm, was relatively empty during the ceremony.

Hidalgo invited Parisians to come to the square with candles from 1700 Paris time (1600 GMT) and said the Marianne statue - covered with flowers, candles and pictures of the victims - will be permanently lit from now on.

"Paris is scarred, but we are still standing," she told French television after the ceremony.

Hollande, who stood stony-faced through the ceremony, later met with the families of the victims on the square.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces remain on high alert as there is a real threat of more attacks.

"We are facing an extremely high level of threat, higher than it has ever been," Cazeneuve said on iTELE television.

France is still under a state of emergency following the 13 November attacks in Paris, in which gunmen linked to the Islamic State group killed 130 people.