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Two Dead, Seven Arrested As Police Storm Paris Apartment

One man has been killed and seven people arrested in a police raid on a Paris apartment where the suspected mastermind of last week's gun and bomb rampage was believed to be holed up.

A woman wearing an explosive suicide vest blew herself up as heavily armed police tried to storm the suburban flat, police said.

The standoff, which began before dawn and ended seven hours later, ended when a loud bang rang out around the streets nearby.

French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll told reporters in the presidential palace after a cabinet meeting that "the operation is over".

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A senior police official said he believed Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamic State militant, was inside the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with five other heavily armed people when the raid started.

The official said scores of police stormed the building and were met with unexpectedly violent resistance. Four police officers were injured, another police official said. No hostages were being held.

The Paris prosecutor's office said SWAT teams arrested three people in the apartment. It said they have not been identified yet. Another man and woman were detained nearby, the office said in a statement.

It's also been confirmed that police dog was killed by the suspects during the raid. Named 'Diesel', he was a a seven-year-old Belgian Shepherd.

Les chiens d'assaut et de recherche d'explosifs: indispensables dans les missions des opérateurs du #RAID pic.twitter.com/vb5lGjnwjO
— Police Nationale (@PNationale) November 18, 2015

French president Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting with senior ministers at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid.

Residents said an explosion shook the neighbourhood shortly after 4am local time (0300 GMT).

Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives in the neighbourhood, said a second large explosion was followed by "two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire".

Another witness, Amine Guizani, said he heard the sound of grenades and automatic gunfire. He said:

"It was continuous. It didn't stop. It lasted from 4.20am until 5.30am. It was a good hour. I couldn't say how many shots were fired, but it was probably 500. Hundreds, definitely. There were maybe 10 explosions."

Sporadic bangs and explosions continued, and at 7.30am (0630GMT) at least seven explosions shook the centre of Saint-Denis. Associated Press reporters at the scene could hear what sounded like grenade blasts from the direction of the standoff.

Investigators have identified 27-year-old Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of Friday's attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured 350 others.

A US official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an IS external operations cell that US intelligence agencies have been tracking for many months.

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In Saint-Denis on Wednesday, police cordoned off the area nearby, including a pedestrian zone lined with shops and 19th-century apartment buildings. Riot police cleared people from the streets, pointing guns at curious residents to move them off the roads.

Saint-Denis mayor Didier Paillard said public transport was suspended and that schools in the centre of town would not open on Wednesday.

Police had said before the raids that they were hunting for two fugitives suspected of taking part as well as any accomplices

One subject of their manhunt has been identified as Salah Abdeslam, whom French police accidentally permitted to cross into Belgium on Saturday. One of his brothers, Brahim, blew himself up in Paris.