PARIS SIEGE: Two terrorists DEAD including mastermind's 'jihadi bride' as police swoop in

A woman, said to be Abaaoud's jihadi bride, fired an AK47 at police before blowing herself up with a suicide belt during the anti-terror operation.

Another terrorist was shot dead by police.

Abaaoud, from Belgium, was originally thought to have fled to Syria but police said he was holed up inside the flat in the Saint-Denis area of Paris.

The French authorities said the siege ended at 10.50am GMT. The fate of the ringleader is still unclear.

Soldiers at stand-off in St-Denis this morning

 

Police make one of five arrests at the siege today

 

Interior minister Bernard Cazeueuve said after the siege there had been 110 police involved in the operation.
He added: “It was a courageous raid and there were being shot at for many hours in conditions they had not met before.”

Special SWAT teams were at the scene around the apartment where the suspect was caged in for much of the morning.

Three truckloads of armed soldiers were also at the chaotic scene.

Police arrived at 3.30am GMT in pursuit o the mastermind of last Friday's horrifying attacks which left 129 people dead.

He was in the building with a number of other terrorists.

They barricaded themselves inside the apartment before the bloody shoot-out.

Automatic gunfire and explosions were heard during the siege – which has left at least four officers wounded.


Abdelhamid Abaaoud is believed to be the mastermind behind the Paris attacks

 
The street where the siege took place - two kilometres from the Stade de France

 

 
The special forces team are involved in the stand-off

A French prosecutor did not say what happened to Abaaoud.

The ringleader is described as “one of the most active Isis executioners” in Syria and is known to have spent time fighting with Islamic State in the region.

He was behind the planning and funding of the mass killing in the French capital.

The 28-year-old originated from the now infamous Molenbeek district of Brussels, where police carried out a series of raids in the wake of the Paris terror atrocity.

French police engaged in heavy gunfire during the operation

 

Abaaoud was named as the leader of a jihadi cell in Belgium earlier this year but managed to evade arrest.

He was tried in absentia along with 31 other militants for his role in the recruitment fighters and sending them to Syria.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but faked his own death so he could slip off the radar of Western security services.

Scores of police stormed the building in St-Denis this morning before being met with "uexpectedly violent resistance".

Reinforcements were summoned and several people were injured.

French prosecutors say there have been seven arrests in relation to the siege. Five were inside the building while two people were apprehended nearby.

None of those arrested have been yet to be identified by the authorities.

Police have blocked off the area around Place Jean Jaurès in St-Denis, which is just north of Paris.

Ambulances could be seen and sirens heard in French television footage from the scene.

French President Francois Hollande is holding an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid on the suburban apartment.

The raid has been ongoing since 3.30am

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/620191/French-Police-Paris-Stade-de-France-heavy-gunfire-St-Denis-North-Paris-Terror-Attacks