Paris shootout as it unfolds: Woman in explosive vest among 3 killed in police raid

France: Five days after the worst attacks in French history killed 129 people in Paris, a gun-battle broke out in a northern suburb of the city during an anti-terrorist police operation on Wednesday, sources said.

The suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Belgian-national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was said to be the target of the raid by the police conducted early on Wednesday, a police source said. At least two people have died in the shooting and siege so far.

Here are the updates as they are happening in Paris.

Three people killed

At least, three people were killed in an apartment targeted by a police raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis following the bloody attacks on Paris, according to a source close to the operation.

The causalities include a woman who detonated an explosives vest, which was confirmed by the prosecutor, as loud explosions and automatic weapon fire were heard in the centre of Saint-Denis.

At least four police were also injured in the operation.

Military deployed

Meanwhile, French military has been deployed to north Paris as the shootout continues.

Three people arrested

Three people have also been arrested as the shootout continues in north Paris, police said.

Suspected mastermind the target

Police said earlier between two and four people were holed up in the apartment.

The suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was the target of a Wednesday dawn raid, a police source said.

It was not clear if the 28-year-old member of the Islamic State jihadist group was one of two to four people thought to be inside the apartment in Saint Denis that police swooped on.

Dawn Operation

The operation, which began before dawn in, was still ongoing at 0615 am local time (0515 GMT)

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 Islamic State jihadist group.

Firemen told AFP they they joined the operation against “an armed group holed up in an apartment” at 04:31 am (0331 GMT), without giving any further details, adding that one person was lightly hurt.

The area was closed down and intermittent gunfire could still be heard an hour after it started.

Another source said a special armed response unit took part in the raid, which comes as Europe was on high alert after footage from the scene of one of Friday’s attacks revealed a ninth suspect may have taken part.

It was not clear if this ninth man was one of two suspected accomplices detained in Belgium or was on the run, potentially with 26-year-old fugitive Frenchman Salah Abdeslam who carried out one of the attacks at Bonne Biere cafe along with his suicide-bomber brother Brahim.

French, Russian rapprochement

French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday will hold a meeting to discuss proposals to extend by three months the state of emergency declared after the worst attacks in French history. It will then be put to vote by lawmakers Thursday and Friday.

In a sign of the nervousness gripping Europe after Friday’s carnage, a football match between Germany and the Netherlands was cancelled Tuesday and the crowd evacuated after police acted on a “serious” bomb threat.

As police stepped up the hunt for the fugitives, French and Russian jets pounded IS targets in the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for a third consecutive day.

France has invoked a previously unused European Union article to ask member states for help in its mission to fight back against the Islamic State organisation, which received unanimous backing from Brussels.

But France also appears to be forging an unexpected alliance with Russia, which it has clashed with over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, after both countries were targeted by the jihadists in deadly attacks.

On Tuesday, Russia finally confirmed that the Russian passenger jet that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month, killing 224 people, had been brought down by a bomb, though it did not name any responsible group.

The Kremlin said Putin and Hollande had “agreed to assure closer contact and coordination between the military and security service agencies of the two countries in actions against terrorist groups… in Syria”.

The alliance comes as international players meet to discuss ways of ending the Syrian war, which has spurred the rise of the Islamic State group, forced millions into exile and triggered Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.

On a solidarity visit to Paris, US Secretary of State John Kerry said a “big transition” in Syria was probably only weeks away after Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia reached agreement at the weekend on a path towards elections.

Still, regime and opposition representatives have yet to sit down together and there is little agreement on the role of Assad in any transition, a key sticking point in the talks.

Back in the United States, more than half of all state governors on Tuesday took steps to force the White House to freeze programmes to resettle Syrian and Iraqi refugees, citing concerns about attacks.

Highlighting US fears over the attack, two Air France flights bound for Paris from the United States were diverted Tuesday and landed safely after anonymous threats the carrier called a “bomb scare.”

With agency inputs