Paris Suicide Vests Mark Change of Tactics and New Threat

The suicide vests used by Friday's attackers in Paris -- a first in France -- were made by a highly skilled professional who could still be at large in Europe, intelligence and security experts say.

All seven of the militants wore identical explosive vests and did not hesitate to blow themselves up -- a worrying change of tactic for jihadists targeting France.

Unlike the attacks in London in 2005 where the bombers' explosives were stored in backpacks, Friday's attackers used the sort of suicide vests normally associated with bombings in the Middle East.

"Suicide vests require a munitions specialist. To make a reliable and effective explosive is not something anyone can do," a former French intelligence chief told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"A munitions specialist is someone who is used to handling explosives, who knows how to make them, to arrange them in a way that the belt or vest is not so unwieldy that the person can't move," he added.

"And it must also not blow up by accident."

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