Cities across Europe are discussing how to ensure security at their annual Christmas markets, some of which have already opened.

In Strasbourg, France, the 445-year-old Christmas market will not include events for children, according to The Wall Street Journal, external. Police foiled a plot to bomb it in 2000, the newspaper says.

Paris has reopened its market on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Zurich railway station market is open, but with increased police presence.

Germany has by far the largest number of Christmas markets in Europe - about 2,500 - drawing 50 million visitors.

France has more than 250 Christmas markets and eight other countries have between 10 and 50.

On Thursday Pope Francis said the Christmas spirit risked sounding hollow in a world that has chosen "war and hate".

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's James Reynolds has tweeted a panaromic view of the Grand Place in Brussels, which he says continues to be visited by tourists. Click on his tweet for the full view.

Belgium's Crisis Centre has published advice for people in Brussels. 

It asks residents to avoid crowded areas and gives hotline numbers, including one dedicated number for information about Salah Abdeslam, who is wanted over the attacks in Paris.

London's Telegraph newspaper has spoken with an American who survived the 9/11 attacks and the Bataclan massacre in Paris.

The 36-year-old man, known only as David, said he instantly recognised the sound of gunshots and ran for the exit. 

“Perhaps it’s my American culture,” he told the newspaper, external.

David was shot in the leg but was able to crawl towards the exit each time the killers stopped to recharge their Kalashnikovs.

David was below the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 when one of the towers was struck by an airliner.

Paris police have extended a ban on demonstrations and other gatherings in the region until the end of the month.

There are also extra security concerns around the arrival of more than 100 heads of state for UN climate talks due to begin on 30 November.

A march by environmental groups scheduled for 29 November has been cancelled.

Police are also requiring all major concert venues to install special security measures. 

A nationwide state of emergency has already been extended for three months.

Among those remembering victims of last week's Paris attacks yesterday was Christophe Naudin. 

He had been at the Bataclan with his friend Vincent Detoc when the militants entered the concert venue. 

Here, he is holding a photograph of his friend, who was one of the 89 people killed there. 

The so-called Islamic State and Saudi Arabia - in its struggle against terrorism, the West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other, Kamel Daoud writes in the New York Times., external

"This is a mechanism of denial, and denial has a price: Preserving the famous strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia at the risk of forgetting that the kingdom also relies on an alliance with a religious clergy that produces, legitimises, spreads, preaches and defends Wahhabism, the ultra-puritanical form of Islam that Daesh (Islamic State) feeds on."  

Image source, Reuters

It was a Saturday with a difference today on the streets of Brussels - with the security forces mingling with Christmas shoppers.

Father-of-three Stephane was among those held hostage by militants who attacked the Bataclan theatre in Paris, killing 89 people. 

He has told the BBC about his two-and-a-half hours with the attackers.

Read his story here.

The American envoy to the international coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group says the Paris attacks have galvanised world opinion and military efforts will intensify in response. 

Brett McGurk told the BBC that Kurdish and Arab groups in northern Syria were preparing to advance with the help of US special operations troops. He said the aim was to isolate the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

"We're cutting [them] off, we're going to isolate it and we're going to suffocate and ultimately strangle them," he said.  

Image source, EPA

Armoured vehicles and heavily armed police and soldiers patrolled key landmarks, intersections and subways in the Belgian capital today. The city was unusually quiet in the face of a government security alert. 

A Turkish official quoted by the AP news agency says that the man suspected of scouting out targets for Islamic State ahead of last week's attacks in Paris is thought to have been in contact with the attackers.

Ahmet Dahmani, 26, reported to be a Belgian man of Moroccan origin, was arrested at a hotel in Antalya.

Anderlecht's game at Lokeren in the Belgian first division has been postponed amid fears of an attack.

The decision to call off the game was taken by the mayor of Lokeren.

A statement from the Pro League said the Lokeren-Anderlecht match was postponed as "security cannot be guaranteed". 

Anderlecht are the only Brussels-based team in the league. 

The day's other matches in the Pro League will take place as scheduled.   

No football matches will take place in Brussels, where people have been told to avoid crowds. 

Image source, Reuters

Reuters reports on the story of a nurse who discovered that a man he was trying to save was one of the Paris bombers. 

David explained that following what he thought was a gas explosion in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe, he began CPR on a man who appeared to be unconscious. 

But when he tore open the man's shirt, he saw wires.

“The first wire I saw was red. I think that was the detonator,” he said. “There was something at the end.”  

The man was Brahim Abdeslam, the only person to die at the cafe.

“[Later] I was thinking about how I lay him on the floor, with me doing CPR," said David. "It’s a pretty vigorous process. By just doing that, I also could have been gone." 

Image source, AP

French police have released seven people who were arrested during the huge raid on a Saint Denis apartment where the ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed, prosecutors have said. 

Jawad Bendaoud (above), who at the time admitted lending the apartment to two people from Belgium "as a favour" but denied knowing anything more, remains in custody.

Image source, Reuters

"We are exceptionally closed," says a sign posted in a shop inside Brussels' Gare du Midi train station, "Be safe ..."

Armed police officers patrol the station's main concourse. One squad checks passengers' bags. Two officers escort away a drunk man who's come in search of cigarettes.  

At 12.08pm, the Eurostar from London arrives. At the arrival gate, a young woman is embraced by her mother who smiles and says she will take her daughter home as quickly as possible in order to stay safe. 

The arriving passengers also include a group of British men on a stag weekend. They say they didn't want to cancel their plans. They head boisterously out into the city.

Along one of the city's main shopping streets, shops are open. Rows of security guards guards the front doors. 

I write these words from a table in a half-empty fast food restaurant. Two well-armed soldiers in camouflage uniform are standing a metre away from me, just inside the front door. 

Image source, EPA

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders says that the metro has been closed today because the government is "preserving the most at-risk places". 

"We know that the metro is particularly vulnerable," he said.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said earlier that given the high number of users of the metro and given the high resources it takes to run it, "the recommendation has been made to stop it until Sunday afternoon", when a new assessment will be made.

BBC Monitoring

Police authorities in Paris have extended a ban on demonstrations in the centre of the capital and surrounding departments to 30 November, Le Parisien newspaper reports, external.

Image source, EPA

An underground parking lot in one of the busiest parts of Brussels remained empty today.