The photographer Jerome Delay covers West Africa for The Associated Press. He was in Paris Friday night during the terrorist attack that killed at least 129 people. After covering the attacks and today’s reaction, he spoke to James Estrin about his experiences. The conversation has been edited.

What did you see last night?

I went out very late. I hopped on my bicycle to go to the scene because I knew that it would be difficult by car. I could get there. I decided to work closer to the Bataclan, where all the wounded people were being triaged. It was quite disturbing to see French soldiers in full camouflage gear, running in the streets of Paris. I’m not used to seeing that here. I’m used to seeing that in the Central African Republic or in other places in the world, but certainly not here.

You went toward the Bataclan?

I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to, and then I went through a back way. Normally in Paris, the boulevards that I took to the scene are bustling with life on a Friday night.

There was a very eerie feeling because there weren’t many people in the streets or much traffic. The weather was quite nice. There are many cafes along the way but nobody was out smoking. It was just empty.

I saw your photo of a single covered body that ran in The Times.

That was right between Bataclan and the triage center. I was making my way from one area to the next, trying not to get caught by the police. It was just one frame.

What was Paris like this morning?

Paris was like any Saturday morning, fairly quiet and not much traffic. I noticed that some of the big markets were closed.

I didn’t see any soldiers patrolling and there was no sense of Paris being under siege or Paris being at war. Far from it.

When I got in front of Le Carillon and Petit Cambodge restaurants where people were killed I was quite surprised that there was already access to the place. The investigators had already done their job there.

People came by the hundreds to put down flowers from early in the morning until when I left around 5:30 this afternoon. It was a very somber, very dignified meeting place. What I focused on in the pictures was the way people’s faces, in a matter of seconds, would become very grave and very upset and then they would try to refrain from crying but they couldn’t. It was quite moving,

These are extraordinary times in France, unseen since the Algerian war. For me, it still hasn’t really sunk in. When something like this happens, you just do your job and go into autopilot.

When Charlie Hebdo happened in January, I was in South Africa and, I think, it hit me harder in a way because I was not able to be here and to do my job. Paris is my home.

You’ve seen terrible things all over the world — people killed and massacred. What was it like to see it in your home city?

It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but in terms of doing my job, it was actually easier, because I know every corner of this town and there is no language barrier. All of a sudden I found myself fighting a war on my own turf, professionally speaking.

You just switch it off.

But I did not go inside the Bataclan and see all those bodies piled up. I have not been exposed to anything I’d find directly traumatic.

I remember Sept. 11, and everything in New York was completely altered. We’re used to going to other countries to photograph tragedies on this kind of scale. Photographers who did the best after the World Trade Center attacks were often people who had photographed combat.

At 3 this morning I ran into my friends I work with in Africa that we call the Bangui gang. We’re all planning on heading to the Central African Republic in a matter of days to cover the pope there. And they were all out in the streets of Paris.

Why weren’t you in South Africa? Were you here for Paris Photo?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time here recently though I work mostly in West Africa these days. But I did spend the whole day at Paris Photo yesterday.

You mentioned seeing the soldiers in Paris. The last 18 hours must have been strange.

It’s not so different for me. Remember I live and work in Africa, and I used to live in Israel before that. My daughters were raised amid tear gas and buses exploding outside their schools. I’ve been doing this for years.

So you’ve got to have a bit of a level head when you get into a situation and not panic because you have a job to do. It doesn’t mean I don’t have any feelings.

It will probably take a while to process those feelings if you’re going to be working.

I’m more concerned about what’s coming next. There are so many soft targets. What’s next, the movie theater? The premiere of the James Bond movie? Does it mean that every time we go to the grocery store, we’re going have to go through a metal detector? How far can we go to try to make our lives safe?

The fear in the street right now is that we don’t know if all the terrorists involved were killed. Are some on the loose? Are others out there? They definitely knew their target very well.

Are there any precautions to take?

You have to live. You’re not going to live in a cage. As you could see with Charlie Hebdo, the French people are really resilient and really strong when it comes down to it.

They don’t take no for an answer, and don’t let other people dictate how you live.

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