A female terrorist wearing a suicide vest has blown herself up and another jihadi is dead as more than 100 police and soldiers were today involved in a gunfight with up to six suspected Paris terrorists including the mastermind behind Friday's massacres.
A bloodied and half naked suspect was seen dragged out of a building through broken glass as SWAT teams and special forces surrounded an apartment in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis - close to the Stade de France - in a siege that started at 4.30am this morning.
French media are reporting the architect of the plan that killed 129 people, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, is alive and inside the flat - until now it was thought he was in Syria orchestrating the Paris attacks from ISIS capital Raqqa.
A woman who may be Abaaoud's jihadi bride is said to have fired her AK-47 at police before blowing herself up as an assault squad stormed the apartment block. Survivors of the Bataclan massacre where 89 people died insisted there was a female shooter.
As she tried to kill police this morning a rooftop sniper shot dead another terror suspect through a window. Police have confirmed that three people in the apartment were taken alive and arrested while two others were held 'nearby' with security forces still trying to 'neutralise' more holed-up in the flat.
An innocent person on the street may have been killed in the crossfire and at least five police have been injured in the ferocious gunfight including one shot in the foot seen being carried from the scene. The terrorists also shot and killed a seven-year-old specialist police dog Diesel, sent into the block.
One of the nine suspected massacre shooters Salah Abdeslam, 26, who has been subject to an international manhunt focussed on Belgium, may also be inside.
Teams of armed police appeared on a street outside the Saint-Denis flat before dawn today and then at least three trucks of soldiers and special forces arrived as back up.
Witnesses told MailOnline there have been periods of intense machine gun fire and at least seven large explosions, caused by the suicide bomber and possibly hand grenades, as the siege continues. There are no hostages involved.
President Francois Hollande was this morning holding an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid.
Prime minister Manuel Valls, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, foreign minister Laurent Fabius and justice minister Christiane Taubira were also in the meeting.
One of the arrested suspects is the man who appears to have rented the flat to the terror cell.
The unnamed suspect, 30, admitted in an interview near the under siege apartment on Rue de Corbillon he handed it over to two men 'who came from Belgium' two days ago.
He said: 'A friend of mine asked me to host two of his buddies for a few days.
'I said there was no mattress, they told me "it's okay", they just wanted water and to pray. My friend said they were from Belgium.
'I was asked to a favour and I said yes. I was not aware that it was terrorists' - moments later police grabbed him and put him in handcuffs. A female friend of his who was also held said she stayed there last week and described it as a 'squat' and said the Belgian men arrived on Monday.
A woman living below the under-siege flat with her young baby described being 'woken up by an explosion'.
She told French broadcaster BMFTV: 'I awoke to an explosion. After that I heard gun shots and there was lots of shooting. The terrorists were fighting at the police and the police were firing back.
There were shots, explosions. We didn’t know where to go. My son and I were in panic. There was dust falling from the ceiling because of the explosions. I kept shouting ‘If you’re from the police, please help me. I’m here with my baby. But they kept shooting and shooting'.
PARIS MASSACRE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK TO HIT EUROPE IN A DECADE
At least 129 people are dead, and another 352 injured, after three teams of jihadis struck the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall.
FIRST TWO ATTACKS: STADE DE FRANCE
The attacks began at 9.20pm at the Stade de France where the French football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly. The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium.
Ahmed Almohammad, 25, from Syria approached the stadium with a match ticket. He was turned away from Gate D after being frisked by a security guard.
He backed away from the gate and detonated his vest, killing one other person. A passport was found near his body.
A second suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, 20, blew himself up near Gate H at 9.30pm. No one else was reported killed. Hadfi is said to have fought with ISIS in Syria.
THIRD ATTACK: LE PETIT CAMBODGE AND LE CARILLON BAR
At 9.25pm a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris, killing 15. The gunmen were using Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles.
FOURTH ATTACK: LA CASA NOSTRA PIZZERIA AND LA BELLE EQUIPE BAR
The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at least five people.
From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east – apparently past the area of the Bataclan concert venue – to launch another attack, this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 9.36pm The attackers then drove off.
FIFTH ATTACK: CAFÉ 'COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE'
At 9.40pm, Ibrahim Abdeslam, also known as Brahim, 31, set off a suicide vest inside cafe 'Comptoir Voltaire' on the Boulevard Voltaire and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the attack, which was found later abandoned with three assault rifles, along with five full magazines. The killers had emptied 11 magazines, firing an estimated 330 rounds.
SIXTH ATTACK: BATACLAN MUSIC HALL
At 9.40pm, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman) armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb.
SEVENTH ATTACK: NEAR STADE DE FRANCE
At around 10.15pm a third blast took place near the Stade de France, this time by a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to flee the stadium following the first two explosions. The attacker who detonated his suicide vest was identified as a 20-year-old French man living in Belgium.
AFTERMATH:
On Saturday morning, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks across Paris, saying 'eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles' conducted a 'blessed attack on... Crusader France'.
On Saturday morning, the world's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam is stopped by French police along with two other men as he approached the Belgian border. He is released after he shows his ID and returns to the Jihadi hotspot of Molenbeek in Brussels where he vanishes.
Belgian police launch several anti-terror raids after Abdeslam was identified as having rented a VW Polo used by the Bataclan killers which was found abandoned nearby.
One of the Stade de France suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece on October 3. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
However, the French minister of justice Christiane Taubira said on Sunday that the passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad was a fake.
Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris was also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber. The petty criminal and father-of-one was known to police as a radical and had travelled to Algeria and Syria. He was identified by the fingerprint on a severed digit found after he detonated his suicide belt.
Mostefai is believed to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent claimed to have regularly preached at his mosque in South West France. His father, a brother and other family members have been held and are being questioned.
The black Seat Leon used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with three AK-47s and 16 magazines - 11 of them empty.
Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a 'den of terrorists'.
Five of those arrested, including Salah and Ibrahim Abdeslams' brother Mohamed have been released without charge. Two others have been charged with unspecified terrorist offences.
Iraqi spies warned the West of an ISIS suicide bomber threat the day before the Paris atrocities, it was revealed on Sunday, as more details of major intelligence failures began to emerge. The US-led coalition in Syria was apparently told by Iraqi security sources that 24 extremists were involved in the terror operation planned in the ISIS capital Raqqa and it would involve 19 attackers including five others including bombmakers and planners. No detail was given of when or where an attack might take place.
It has also emerged that Turkey's authorities foiled a plot to stage a 'Jihadi John revenge attack' in Istanbul - involving a high-profile British jihadist - on the same day as the deadly massacre in Paris.
From as far back as August, France's authorities possessed information that militants were said to be planning attacks on French concert halls after a tip-off was received from a 30-year-old man who was detained on his way back from Syria.
On Sunday night there were 42 people still said to be in intensive care in hospital following Friday's terrorist attacks.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
French and Belgian police are still hunting for three gunmen on the run, including Abdeslam, and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests.
An international arrest warrant has been issued for Abdeslam, 26, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers.
It emerged on Sunday night that police found Abdeslam near the Belgian border early Saturday but let him go after he showed them his ID card. Officers pulled over the car being driven by Abdeslam on Saturday morning on the A2 motorway between Paris and Brussels. Two other men were also in the car.
At the time, officers in Paris knew that Abdeslam had rented the car used by the killers which had been abandoned near the theatre but the information had not been transmitted to those responsible for conducting the border checks.
On Sunday evening the French defence ministry announced that the country's warplanes had bombed Islamic State's stronghold in Syria's Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp. Ten fighter jets were involved, dropping 20 bombs.
French and Belgian police conducted 168 pre-dawn anti-terror raids on Monday, including a botched attempt to capture Abdeslam, who is still on the run. The raids took place at addresses in Brussels, Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Calais and two suburbs of Paris. A rocket launcher, flak jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among the cache of weapons seized in Lyon overnight.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 104 people had been placed under house arrest, while 23 suspects were detained for questioning.
The mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks is named as one of ISIS' top executioners, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, who even recruited his 13-year-old brother to fight with him in Syria.
ISIS issue a chilling new video warning that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria will suffer the same fate as Paris and claimed they will attack Washington D.C. next.
French police have discovered a safe house used by the terror gang in the Bobigny suburb of Paris rented three days before the attack.
The Royal Air Force has stuck ISIS targets in northern Iraq as the French continue their air strikes against the Jihadi stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.
DailyMail
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