France is at war: Hollande

A bill to extend the state of emergency by three months in the country would also be proposed, says French president

VERSAILLES, FRANCE: Speaking at a special congress of the joint upper and lower houses of parliament at the Palace of Versailles, French President Francois Hollande declared France to be at war.

"France is at war. They are the work of an extremist army fighting us because France is a country of freedom, because France is the homeland of human rights," he said. "France is not engaged in a war of civilisations because those assassins don’t represent a civilisation. Our democracy has triumphed before over adversaries that were much more formidable than these cowards."

The president announced to table a bill to extend the state of emergency by three months.

He also proposed the French constitution to be amended for crisis situations.

"The constitution must allow dual citizens to be stripped of their French citizenship and barred from the country if they are a terrorism risk," he said.

Foreigners who present a security risk must be expelled faster, he added.