People from at least nine countries are believed to have died in Friday’s coordinated gun and bomb attacks in Paris, with victims including a French lawyer, a German architect, Tunisian sisters celebrating a friend’s birthday, an American student and a British man working for a rock band.

Almost 24 hours after the attacks, which killed at least 129 people and critically injured 99 more, only six victims’ names had been confirmed, with identification slowed both by the scale of the tragedy and the fact many people lost wallets and other forms of identification amid the chaos.

The first named was Valentin Ribet, a 26-year-old criminal lawyer at law firm Hogan Lovells, who was attending the rock concert at the Bataclan venue, where 87 people died.

The London School of Economics tweeted that Ribet, who took an LLM in international business law in 2014, had died. “Our hearts are filled with sadness at this news.”

LSE (@LSEnews) We have learned of some very sad news from our LSE alumni community, following the #ParisAttacks. pic.twitter.com/NZVsG6PDLh

Ribet’s company described him as “a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office”. It added: “This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend. We are shocked by both our loss and the wider events in the city.”



Two other French victims were also named: Djamila Houd, aged 41, and 34-year-old Thomas Ayad. Ayad also died at the Bataclan.

The death of at least one British citizen has been confirmed, with fears that more names are yet to be released.

Nick Alexander Photograph: Alexander family

The family of Nick Alexander, a British man from Colchester in Essex who was working with Eagles of Death Metal, the Californian group playing at the Bataclan, confirmed his death last night.

“It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night,” the family said in a statement. “Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle, he was everyone’s best friend – generous, funny and fiercely loyal.

“Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world. Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light.”

Earlier in the day his girlfriend, Polina Buckley, said she was concerned for his safety as he had been selling band merchandise at the gig. She said she had not been able to reach him and had not been contacted by authorities.

“I’m trying to find out if my boyfriend is alive,” she said. “I haven’t heard from him since the attack.”

The UK government source said the picture was still unclear and the number of UK deaths could rise. “We know of one death already, we fear there may be a handful of British fatalities and about the same number are being treated for their injuries in hospital,” the Whitehall source said.

Spanish television said Alberto González Garrido, a 29-year-old man from Madrid, was also confirmed as having died at the concert. His family had been informed, Spanish officials said.

Also killed was a German man who worked at the Paris office of the Italian architect Renzo Piano, designer of the Shard skyscraper in London. A press officer for the company told the Guardian the man, who has not been named, was eating with two colleagues at a Cambodian restaurant targeted by gunmen. The colleagues, from Mexico and Ireland, suffered non life-threatening injuries.





A 20-year-old American woman was another of those killed during the atrocity. Nohemi Gonzalez, a student at California State University, Long Beach, was in Paris attending Strate College of Design during a semester abroad programme.

“I’m deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Long Beach State University student Nohemi Gonzalez. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this sad time,” said university president, Jane Close Conoley.

Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Lofven, confirmed that a Swedish national had been killed. There were unconfirmed reports of a Swede wounded by gunfire. Lofven said.



Belgium’s foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said that at least two of the country’s nationals had died, giving no further details.

Romania’s foreign ministry also said two of its citizens died in the attacks, and a third was injured.

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that among those confirmed dead were two Tunisian sisters aged 34 and 35. The women, who lived in eastern France, were reportedly celebrating a friend’s birthday in Paris at the time of the attaacks.

The French newspaper Libération quoted a Portuguese news agency as saying one Portuguese national died in one of the bomb blasts near the Stade de France stadium. The man lived in Paris and was 63, the report said.

Elsewhere, a wider and increasingly desperate social media search was under way to identify victims, many of them young music fans attending the concert at the Bataclan.



Hundreds of relatives and friends made appeals for information using social media. There were dozens of updates on Twitter, mainly in French, every minute using the hashtag #rechercheParis.

Many of the accompanying photographs showed teenagers and people in their 20s and 30s. Some of the appeals were for missing people as young as 12. It was the top-trending tag on Twitter, with almost 2m messages.

“We’re looking for our friend Grégory, who was at the Bataclan last night,” read one, with a photo of a young man. “I’ve heard nothing from my sister since yesterday evening – any information please?” read another, showing the picture of a young woman. “No news about my friend Victor Munoz, who was at rue de Charonne. Thanks for your help,” said another.

Libération said the delay in identifying victims from the concert attack was in part because the bodies had not been removed until Saturday morning, with the initial focus on taking injured people to hospital. Additionally, many of those at the concert either lost means of identification or had them in coats and bags in the cloakroom, the paper said.





Speaking from Downing Street, Cameron condemned the “brutal and callous murderers” behind the attacks. “We must be prepared for a number of British casualties,” he said. In a message of solidarity to the people of France, the prime minister said: “Your values are our values, your pain is our pain, your fight is our fight.”





The reported death toll so far is 87 at the Bataclan theatre; 18 shot dead at a cafe in the Boulevard de Charonne; one at Boulevard Voltaire; five at Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, where another cafe was attacked; and 14 in a gun attack on two restaurants in the Rue Alibert.

At the Stade de France, where a series of explosions went off near the stadium where France was playing Germany in an international football friendly, the Paris prosecutor said “some” people were killed, possibly three. However, it is not clear whether they were attackers or victims.

Among those confirmed to have survived are the members of Eagles of Death Metal, despite the band’s Facebook page saying on Friday night that members of the group and their crew were missing.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper quoted the brother of the band’s drummer, Atlanta native Julian Dorio, as saying the group escaped. “They saw a man with a machine gun just opening fire,” his brother, Michael Dorio, told the paper. The musicians threw themselves to the floor and escaped via a backstage door, where they went to a nearby police station, he said.