Saint-Denis, France, Nov 18 – Three terrorist suspects have been killed in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis during a major security operation linked to the deadly attacks that rocked the French capital five days ago, a police source said. The targets of the raid are believed to have included the purported ringleader of the attacks. A female suspect blew herself up with a suicide belt, a prosecutor says. Some reports suggest two suspects died. There were explosions and gunfire in the operation, which is continuing.
Five people have also been arrested. The focus of the operation is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Islamic State-claimed attacks that killed 129 people. Roads have been 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.
“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. 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 in Rue de La Republique, French media report. The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the raid started at 04:20 local time (03:20 GMT) and was still ongoing. A woman inside the apartment set off an explosives vest at the beginning of the raid and died. Three men who were also in the apartment have been detained by anti-terrorist police.
A man and a woman were stopped and detained close to the apartment, police said. There are unconfirmed reports that one person remains holed up in the flat. Other unconfirmed reports have put the death toll at between two and three. Several police officers are reported to have been wounded in the operation. Earlier, Deputy Mayor Stephane Peu urged local residents to stay indoors, saying “it is not a new attack but a police intervention”.
- 3:07 a.m. ET: Five people have been arrested during the operation, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. They include three men who were removed from the apartment at the heart of the raid, and a man and a woman who were detained near the apartment, the prosecutor’s office said. It also confirmed that a woman killed herself at the scene by activating her suicide belt.
- 2:52 a.m. ET: The police operation is “absolutely not over,” said Matthieu Hanotin, a lawmaker for Saint-Denis. He told French radio that police believe that there are still heavily armed terrorists inside the building. French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira had earlier suggested the raid was “coming to an end.”
- 2:47 a.m. ET: Three suspected terrorists have been killed in the raid, a police source told. Three police officers were wounded, the source said.
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2:16 a.m. ET: One of the terrorist suspects killed was shot by a police sniper, and another was a woman who died after her suicide vest exploded, the broadcaster reported. A civilian passerby was killed during the operation, it said.
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2:08 a.m. ET: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, is one of the potential targets of the operation, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told. The official cautioned that French and Belgian authorities weren’t certain that Abaaoud was at the location when they launched the raid in search of high priority targets.
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1:32 a.m. ET: A series of explosions is heard in the area. The cause of the blasts wasn’t immediately clear.
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Police and soldiers have cordoned off the zone and all public transportation in the area has been halted. Residents have been warned to stay inside.
