Reports say up to sixty people have been killed in violence around Paris and around 100 people have been taken hostage at a theatre in the French capital.

Officials said shots were fired in at least two restaurants and at least two explosions were heard near the Stade de France stadium, where the national side was playing Germany in a friendly football match.

French president Francois Hollande left the stadium, where he had been watching the game, to hold an emergency meeting.

Officials have said between 35 to 40 people have been killed, the Associated Press reported.

The hostages are being held at the Bataclan theatre, according to reports.

Eyewitness Ben Grant said he was in a bar with his wife when the gunshots were fired and he had seen six or seven bodies on the ground.

He told the BBC: "I was told people in cars had opened fire on the bar.

"There are lots of dead people. It's pretty horrific to be honest.

"I was at the back of the bar. I couldn't see anything.

"I heard gunshots. People dropped to the ground. We put a table over our heads to protect us.

"We were held up in the bar because there was a pile of bodies in front of us."

The attacks come almost a year after the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, which took place in January and saw 12 people killed after gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical magazine.

In June, France launched a terrorism investigation after police found a decapitated body in a gas factory in the south-eastern city of Lyon.

Two months later three Americans and one Briton were awarded medals for bravery after they overpowered a heavily armed gunman on a train in France.

Pictures on social media showed hundreds of football fans had spilled on to the pitch at the Stade de France after the game ended.