Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard in Paris as armed
police searching for suspects from Friday's attacks raided a flat in the suburb
of Saint Denis.
Two people were killed in the raid, including a female suspect blew herself up with a suicide belt. Seven people have been arrested, police say.
A government spokesman has confirmed the operation has
ended.
The focus of the raid is said to be the alleged mastermind
of Friday's attacks that killed 129 people.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan
origin, was originally suspected of organising Friday's attacks from Syria.
But this has not been confirmed.
Roads were blocked off around Rue de la Republique in Saint
Denis, in the same district as the Stade de France where suicide attackers
detonated bombs on Friday.
Truckloads of soldiers joined armed police at the scene as
the operation got under way at 04:20 local time (03.20 GMT).
"I've been hearing gunshots continuously, like
fireworks... There have been some breaks but... to me it sounds like continuous
gunshots," one resident, Benson Hoi, told the BBC earlier.
Another witness, Amine Guizani, told the Associated Press he
heard the sounds of grenades and automatic gunfire.
"They were shooting for an hour, non-stop. There were
grenades. It was going, stopping, Kalashnikovs, Starting again," he said.
At least five people were believed to have been in the
targeted third floor flat, French media report.
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