Two people were killed, including a woman who blew herself up, during a police assault in north Paris targeting the suspected mastermind of Friday’s attacks.
Three others were arrested following the dawn raids, as loud explosions and automatic weapon fire were heard in the center of Saint-Denis just north of the capital.
Earlier, a source said the operation aimed at the suspected ISIS mastermind of the attacks, Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and police had been wounded in the shootout.
Police said earlier between two and four people were holed up in the apartment.
The area is home to the Stade de France, one of several places hit by gunmen and suicide bombers on Friday in the worst ever attack on French soil, which was claimed by the militant group.
The coordinated assaults killed 129 people and injured more than 350, some of them critically.
Abaaoud, 27, initially thought to have pulled the strings from Syria, was believed to be among a group of people holed up in an apartment in the northern suburb near the national soccer stadium, which was one of the sites attacked by suicide bombers last week, the source said.
Around 50 French soldiers were deployed to the northern Paris suburb. They were posted along the main high street near the apartment.
Police were wounded during the gunfight linked to the attacks on the French capital that claimed 129 lives, a source close to the raid said.
Another source said a special armed response unit took part in the raid.
The operation, which began before dawn in Saint Denis, was still ongoing at 0615 am local time (0515 GMT).
Reuters
