remember Paris dead as police hunt fugitive attacker, name mastermind

PARIS — France fell silent Monday to remember 129 people killed by Islamic State militants as police failed to corner a key escaped accomplice and officials named the alleged Syrian-based mastermind of the attacks, who remained beyond their grasp.

President Francois Hollande led his stunned, jittery nation in one minute's silence at the University of Sorbonne, while thousands more clasped hands outside some of the bullet-riddled nightspots where extremists struck Friday night during a half-dozen attacks that also wounded 350.

Only hours before, Parisians had fled in panic, trampling through memorial candles and messages to the dead, after hearing apparent gunshots that turned out to be fireworks.

But city authorities vowed amid a state of emergency to resume normal life. Children went to school and the Eiffel Tower reopening to tourists after a two-day shutdown. The tower was being floodlit at night in the red, white and blue of the French tricolor along with a projection of Paris' motto of "Tossed but not sunk," suggesting an unsinkable city tossed in the waves.

But as France intensified its air strikes on suspected IS power bases in Syria, police struggled to achieve a breakthrough in their hunt for those linked to France's deadliest attacks since World War II.