Paris (AFP) - The fate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, remained unknown Wednesday after a massive police assault on his alleged hideout, the city's prosecutor said. 
 
 Paris prosecutor Francois Molins outlined a seven-hour raid of an "extreme difficulty" which saw police fire nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition in a battle with a group holed up in two apartments. 
 
 A gargantuan probe undertaken since the Friday attacks saw police pore over video footage, telephone surveillance and witness reports which led them to the apartment in the poor multi-ethnic suburb of Saint-Denis. 
 
 Molins said a witness report received Monday led investigators to believe that Abaaoud, a known Belgian jihadist believed to be in Syria, was in fact on French territory. 
 
 "This is an individual suspected of being the instigator of a large number of attacks in Europe," said Molins. 
 
 Wary about the report, investigators ran "numerous telephonic and bank verifications," he added. 
 
 View gallery Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins holds a press conference in Paris on November 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/A … 
 
 The police assault was launched at 4:20am (0320 GMT), putting Saint-Denis on lockdown as helicopters buzzed in the sky and snipers took up position on rooftops. 
 
 However police immediately ran into difficulty. 
 
 "The reinforced door of the apartment at first resisted explosives laid by RAID (anti-terror police) which allowed the terrorists to prepare their riposte," said Molins. 
 
 "Very sustained gunfire continued for nearly an hour," he said, adding that "the complex nature of the operation required the use of assault rifles, snipers and explosives." 
 
 The operation was further complicated by an explosion -- later determined to be a woman who "detonated an explosives vest"-- and damage done to the building which led to the collapse of part of the floor. 
 
 View gallery Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian suspected of orchestrating the Paris attacks, pictured in a February … 
 
 Another body "riddled with bullets" was found in the debris, but the state of the corpse did not allow for it to be identified. 
 
 Therefore, Molins said: "I am not able to give you a precise number and identity of those killed. There are at least two dead and verifications will likely take longer than expected" due to the state of the apartment building. 
 
 "A new team of terrorists was neutralised and all indications are that given their arms, their organisational structure and their determination, the commando could have struck," he said. 
 
 Three suspects were arrested inside the building, while outside police took into custody a man who lent the apartment to the jihadists and a woman accompanying him. 
 
 Two men were arrested after being found in the rubble. 
 
 An eighth man, who was injured and found outside, was also taken into custody believed to have been involved in providing the apartment. 
 
 The vast probe also led police to discover a cellphone belonging to one of the attackers in a dustbin outside the Bataclan music venue, scene of the worst violence, where 89 people were gunned down. 
 
 A total of 129 people were killed and 350 injured in the attacks. 
 
 The phone showed one of the gunmen had sent a message saying "we're ready, let's go." 
 
 The message was sent at 9:42 pm, before the attack on the Bataclan, Molins said, adding that police were investigating who the message was sent to. 
 
 "We can say that a massive logistical operation was meticulously put in place by these terrorists," said Molins. ||||| SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — The hunt for the mastermind of last week's attacks took a bloody turn Wednesday to a Paris suburb where a fierce gunbattle with police left at least two people dead and eight arrested. The fate of the alleged ringleader was unclear, with authorities saying he was not taken alive and they were trying to determine if he died in the raid. 
 
 Soldiers operate in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation near... (Associated Press) 
 
 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. A woman wearing an explosive suicide vest blew herself up Wednesday as heavily armed police tried to storm a... (Associated Press) 
 
 Soldiers and police forces patrol in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks, a man and a woman, have been killed in a police... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks, a man and a woman, have been killed in a police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces prepare in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Residents are evacuated by the police in Saint Denis, north of Paris, France, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large... (Associated Press) 
 
 Armed police officers take up positions in Saint Denis, a northern suburb ofParis, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis are telling residents to stay inside during... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces prepare in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces prepare in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks, a man and a woman, have been killed in a police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces and soldiers patrol in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks, a man and a woman, have been killed in a police... (Associated Press) 
 
 Hooded police officers detain a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. A woman wearing an explosive suicide vest blew herself up Wednesday as heavily armed police tried to storm a... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces prepare in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces operate in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Police say two suspects in last week's Paris attacks, a man and a woman, have been killed in a police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police forces prepare in St. Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Authorities in the Paris suburb of St. Denis are telling residents to stay inside during a large police operation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud was holed up in an apartment in Paris' Saint-Denis neighborhood. 
 
 Terrified residents awoke to gunfire and explosions as a SWAT team swooped in and "neutralized" what Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins called a "new team of terrorists" that appeared ready for a new attack. 
 
 Molins said the identities of the dead were still being investigated, but that neither Abaaoud nor another fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, was in custody. 
 
 "At this time, I'm not in a position to give a precise and definitive number for the people who died, nor their identities, but there are at least two dead people," Molins said. 
 
 The site of Wednesday's raid is not far from the Stade de France soccer stadium; three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the stadium during an international soccer game as part of the attacks last Friday that left 129 people dead and hundreds wounded. 
 
 Molins said police units including snipers threw grenades and fired 5,000 rounds in an hourlong gunbattle that began before dawn on Wednesday. The dead included a woman who was believed to have blown herself up with a suicide belt, though Molins said "this point needs to be verified by an analysis of the body and human remains." 
 
 Five police were wounded and a SWAT team dog was killed in the intense gunbattle during which the third floor of the apartment building collapsed. 
 
 Residents described hunkering down in fear. 
 
 "We tried to stop our children hearing the noise," said Farah Appane, who lives about 80 yards (meters) from where the raid took place. "My 19-month-old was crying. Our 8-year-old said 'What is it? Are there more attacks?'" 
 
 She said she could hear gunfire on and off for over an hour, followed by "one really huge boom." 
 
 The head of one of the special forces units that took part in the raid, Jean-Michel Fauverge, said police used drones and robots equipped with cameras in an attempt to see what was going on inside during the raid but there was too much debris. 
 
 When they entered the building they found a body that had fallen from the third floor to the second, he told the French newspaper Le Figaro. 
 
 "The corpse was mutilated, probably from grenades and he wasn't recognizable," Fauverge said. "Other people were in the stairwell, two men hiding under blankets and whatever they could find. We arrested them." 
 
 Molins said five men were taken into custody in the apartment building, including two who were pulled from the rubble. A woman and two other men, including the man whose apartment was used as the cell's hideout, were arrested on a nearby street. 
 
 Authorities didn't release their identities; Molins would only say that Abaaoud and Abdeslam were not among them. 
 
 Investigators have identified Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of the attacks Friday against the soccer stadium, a crowded concert hall and popular night spots in a trendy Paris neighborhood. 
 
 A U.S. official briefed on intelligence matters said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking for months. 
 
 Abaaoud is believed to have escaped to Syria after a January police raid in Belgium, but he has bragged in Islamic State propaganda of his ability to move back and forth between Europe and Syria undetected. 
 
 Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens also said he could not confirm whether Abaaoud was among those killed in the raid. 
 
 Speaking after the seven-hour siege ended, French President Francois Hollande praised the bravery of the security services and said that France was "at war" with the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks. He called for an international coalition to destroy the group, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq. 
 
 Britain said one of the Royal Navy's most advanced warships would support a French aircraft carrier that is on its way to join operations against IS militants in Syria. 
 
 In its English language magazine, the Islamic State group said it will continue its violence and "retaliate with fire and bloodshed" for insults against the Prophet Muhammad and "the multitudes killed and injured in crusader airstrikes." 
 
 On Wednesday, a video was posted on the Daily Mail website that appears to come from security cameras showing an nearly empty restaurant erupt into chaos with bullets smashing into walls and diners and staff diving for cover. A gunman is seen briefly when he approaches the restaurant's terrace and points his rifle at someone laying on the ground. A moment later he leaves, and a woman rises and dashes for safety. 
 
 The restaurant is not named in Daily Mail's accompanying article but examination by The Associated Press suggests it is Casa Nostra, a pizzeria near the Bonne Biere, another restaurant hit by the attackers and where five people were killed. 
 
 The attacks have put France on edge and the raid Wednesday only heightened fears that there could be more cells preparing to strike. 
 
 French authorities have said seven attackers were killed Friday — six who blew themselves up and one who was killed by police. Abdeslam got away, as well as possibly another, so far unidentified, assailant, officials said. 
 
 Molins said Wednesday that investigators found a cell phone in a garbage can outside the Bataclan concert hall where 89 of the victims of Friday's carnage died. It contained a text message sent about 20 minutes after the massacre began. "We're off, it's started," it read. 
 
 Molins said investigators were still trying to identify the recipient of the message. 
 
 A Spanish security official said Wednesday that French authorities had sent a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, was among the attackers who blew themselves up. 
 
 French authorities have said most of the attackers — five have been identified so far — were unknown to them. But two U.S. officials said that many, though not all, of those identified were on the U.S. no-fly list. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the issue publicly. 
 
 French authorities declared a state of emergency after the attacks, and security forces have conducted 414 raids, making 60 arrests and seizing 75 weapons, including 11 military-style firearms, the Interior Ministry said. Parliament is expected to vote by the end of the week to extend the state of emergency for three months. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Ritter reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Raphael Satter in Saint-Denis; Greg Keller, Philippe Sotto, Sylvie Corbet, Lori Hinnant, Angela Charlton, Jill Lawless Samuel Petrequin and Jamey Keaten in Paris; David Rising in Berlin; Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Ken Dilanian and Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Gunfire broke out in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis early Wednesday as police pursued suspects from the terror attacks of Nov. 13. Witnesses documented the flood of police into the historic suburb as the raid grew. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) 
 
 The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed Wednesday in a massive pre-dawn raid by French police commandos, two senior European officials said, after investigators followed leads that the fugitive Islamic State militant was holed up north of the French capital and could be plotting another wave of violence. 
 
 More than 100 police officers and soldiers stormed an apartment building in Saint-Denis, a bustling suburb home to many immigrants, during a seven-hour siege that left at least two people dead, officials said. The dead ­included the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abdel­hamid Abaaoud, according to the two senior European officials. Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist, had once boasted that he could slip easily between Europe and strongholds of the Islamic State militant group in Syria. 
 
 [LIVE updates from Paris and elsewhere] 
 
 Paris prosecutor François Molins, speaking to reporters hours after the siege, said he could not provide the identities of the people killed at the scene. A French security official declined to confirm or deny that Abaaoud had died. U.S. officials said they were awaiting confirmation of the identities of those slain. 
 
 The two European officials from different countries, who have followed the case closely, said they had received the information about Abaaoud’s death from French authorities. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. 
 
 It was not immediately clear how Abaaoud died — whether in police gunfire, by his own hand or in a suicide blast triggered by a woman in the apartment. 
 
 [How officials may have missed their chance to stop Paris terror suspects ] 
 
 After the raid, forensics experts combed through blown-out windows and floors collapsed by explosions, presumably seeking DNA and other evidence. 
 
 Molins said a discarded cellphone helped identify safe houses used by attackers to plan Friday’s coordinated assaults, which killed 129 people and wounded more than 350 in a series of attacks at a stadium, a concert hall and restaurants across Paris. 
 
 Molins said police launched the raid after receiving a witness tip suggesting that Abaaoud was ­“entrenched” on the third floor of the Saint-Denis building. He said that neither Abaaoud nor another wanted suspect, Salah Abdeslam, was among eight people who were arrested at the apartment and surrounding locations on Wednesday. Three people were arrested in the raid itself, one of whom suffered a gunshot wound in the arm, he said. 
 
 Molins said the sophisticated militant cell used three safe houses around Paris — including the Saint-Denis apartment — and three rental cars to launch the attack. It was “a huge logistics plan, meticulously carried out,” he said. 
 
 Abaaoud was the target of a major dragnet in the international search — which stretches from Belgium to Syria — for suspects in Friday’s carnage. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Supporters of the Islamic State, the extremist group whose vast domain straddles Syria and Iraq, have vowed to inflict repeated attacks on the West, including in Europe. 
 
 The raid was in part a response to what French officials thought was a plan to stage a follow-up terrorist attack in La Defense, a financial district northwest of Paris, two police officials and an investigator close to the investigation said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief members of the media. 
 
 Seven men and one woman were arrested Wednesday in Saint-Denis, Molins said. 
 
 Five days after the worst violence on French soil since World War II, European nations remained on edge, enhancing vigilance against possible attacks by Islamist militants who have promised to bring the brutal tactics employed in Iraq and Syria to the West. 
 
 [Why French airstrikes on ISIS’s ‘capital’ probably haven’t done much ] 
 
 President François Hollande, seeking to reassure French citizens unnerved by the bloodshed on the streets of Paris, said the attacks would not alter the French way of life. 
 
 “We are at war against terrorism, terrorism which declared war on us,” Hollande said at a meeting of French mayors. “It is the [Islamic State] jihadist organization. It has an army. It has financial resources. It has oil. It has a territory. 
 
 “It has allies in Europe, including in our country,” he continued, “with young, radicalized Islamist people. It committed atrocities there and wants to kill here. It has killed here.” 
 
 He renewed his case to extend a state of emergency decreed after the attacks and to make changes to the constitution that he said would make France safer. 
 
 Jean-Michel Fauvergue, chief of the elite police unit that carried out Wednesday’s raid, said the operation began at 4:16 a.m. with an attempt to blast open the third-floor apartment door with explosives. But the reinforced door would not open properly, and the element of surprise was lost, he said. The terrorists inside then blocked the door with a heavy object. 
 
 French media identified the suicide bomber as Hasna Aitboulahcen, a cousin of Abaaoud’s. The 26-year-old French citizen is a former manager of Beko Construction, a company in Epinay-sur-Seine, a town north of Saint-Denis. The company closed down in 2014. 
 
 Fauvergue said hundreds of shots were exchanged and each side threw projectiles. 
 
 As the raid progressed, heavily armed police clad in military gear — some with their faces covered by balaclavas — moved quickly through the dark streets, while sharpshooters were posted on nearby buildings. Helicopters scanned from the skies, and police used a drone and two robots to conduct surveillance. For hours, traffic and public transportation were halted, and schools were shuttered. 
 
 Authorities say as many as 20 people may have been involved in the plot to attack Paris. Here's what we know about them so far. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) 
 
 Uthayaseelan Sanmugan, a 38-year-old cook who lives near the targeted apartment, said he woke up at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of gunfire, went to his window and saw the lights from weapons outside. 
 
 “When I got to the street, I saw a lot of blood on the sidewalk. The blood of the terrorists.” 
 
 Residents were evacuated or instructed to stay inside their homes. 
 
 “I heard gunshots and, sometime around 7 a.m., a huge blast, an explosion,” said Kelly Ovo, a 45-year-old day laborer who lives close to the apartment that was under siege. 
 
 French police reported that a 7-year-old police dog named Diesel was “killed by the terrorists” in the raid. 
 
 Abaaoud, an ardent Islamic State supporter linked to several other terrorist attempts, was believed to be in Syria earlier this year. But some officials speculated earlier this week that he could have returned to Europe, perhaps passing undetected among the flood of asylum seekers pouring into Greek islands from Turkey. 
 
 The siege appeared to have been aided by another potential breakthrough in the probe: the discovery of a mobile phone in a garbage can near the Bataclan concert hall, the site of one of Friday’s assaults. 
 
 The phone’s data contained a map of the music venue, which was the target of the most deadly attack last week. French media reported that the phone contained a chilling text message sent shortly after the first gunman entered: “Let’s go, we’re starting.” 
 
 [The mystery surrounding the Paris bomber with a fake Syrian passport ] 
 
 The information on the phone opened fresh leads, including to an apartment southeast of Paris in Alfortville, according to Mediapart, a French news outlet. 
 
 French officials have cast a wide net in the hunt for suspects in Friday’s attacks. Across France, 118 additional raids were conducted overnight on Tuesday, yielding at least 25 arrests. That brought to 414 the number of raids launched throughout France since Friday, the Interior Ministry said. 
 
 The attacks deepened questions about European intelligence agencies’ ability to prevent militant violence. According to Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor, Belgian federal police interrogated Brahim Abdeslam, one of the Paris attackers, in February after he returned from Turkey. 
 
 Belgian federal police also questioned Brahim’s brother Salah, who they knew had been radicalized, Van Der Sypt said. But Belgian officials said there was no indication that the brothers were going to get involved with terrorism, so they were released. 
 
 Across Europe, officials remained on high alert Wednesday. In Copenhagen, a terminal at the Danish capital’s international airport was briefly evacuated after “an overheard conversation about a bomb,” police said in a Twitter post. The terminal later reopened. 
 
 Countries, including Sweden and Italy, raised terror alerts. At the Vatican, extra security was posted in St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Francis addressed pilgrims. 
 
 On Tuesday, authorities in Hanover, Germany, abruptly called off a friendly soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands that Chancellor Angela Merkel had planned to attend, officials said. 
 
 Turmoil continued elsewhere in France on Wednesday when a history teacher at a Jewish school in Marseille was stabbed by three men. Brice Robin, the Marseille prosecutor, said one of the attackers had an Islamic State T-shirt. The teacher received medical aid and appeared to be in stable condition. 
 
 Also in Marseille, a young veiled Muslim woman was attacked by a man who punched her and wielded a box cutter. She was taken to an emergency room. 
 
 Since last week’s attacks, Hollande has vowed a withering French response. On Tuesday, France invoked a European Union mutual aid pact that calls for members of the bloc to assist other member states if they are attacked, a historic if largely symbolic move. 
 
 [The bombs exploded, and France’s president called it ‘war’. It was 1986. ] 
 
 Daniela Deane in London, Virgile Demoustier, Emily Badger and Karla Adam in Paris, and Loveday Morris in Baghdad contributed to this report. 
 
 1 of 32 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × See photos of deadly police raid in France View Photos Two terrorism suspects are dead after the pre-dawn raid in Saint-Denis. Caption Two terrorism suspects are dead after the pre-dawn raid in Saint-Denis. Nov. 19, 2015 French crime scene investigators are seen outside the rue du Corbillon building in Saint-Denis, a northern Paris suburb. Christophe Petit Tesson/European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 How officials may have missed their chance to stop Paris terror suspects 
 
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 The long war against Islamist extremism has become more complicated than ever
– Paris prosecutor Francois Molins gave new details on the police raid on an alleged ISIS terror cell just north of Paris in a press conference Wednesday. Some highlights : Molins said about 5,000 rounds were fired by police during an hourlong gunfight between heavily armed police and those inside the Saint-Denis hideout, the AP reports. Investigators found "a total war arsenal" of Kalashnikovs, ammo, and explosives, per the Guardian. Law enforcement was bombarded with gunfire as they tried to fight their way in through a reinforced door, the AP notes. There's confusion whether alleged mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud was among those killed in the raid. Molins said during the press conference that two suspects were dead and eight arrested, though he said he can't yet ID them, per the Guardian. He added that neither Abaaoud nor Salah Abdeslam were among those arrested. But two anonymous senior EU intelligence officials tell the Washington Post that Abaaoud was indeed killed during the siege and that forensic experts had gathered evidence at the scene after the chaos had ended. The suspected terror cell was caught just in time, per authorities. "A new team of terrorists was neutralized and all indications are that given their arms, their organizational structure, and their determination, the commando could have struck," Molins said, per AFP.