UPDATE: Three Dead After Heavy Gunfire in Paris Suburb Targeting ‘Mastermind’, Suspects Holed Up in Apt Building

Saint-Denis is about 7 miles from the centre of Paris. Perhaps most significantly it is also where the Stade de France is located, scene of one of the terror attacks.

Three men have been arrested and two RAID officers injured after an exchange of gunfire in the northern Paris suburb of St-Denis, a police source and local officials said.

UPDATE: Two Suspects, One Passerby killed in Raid: Woman detonated Suicide Vest. Developing….

Firing has ceased in the past few minutes, according to local residents contacted by phone. Homes have been evacuated and a number of local residents are being sheltered at the town hall.

TARGET: This guy, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud: alleged mastermind of Paris attacks

The local MP, Mathieu Hanotin, said people should remain at home for the time being although firing has stopped.

“It’s not over,” he said.

Two or three men had barricaded themselves in an apartment in Paris where they exchanged gunfire using automatic weapons with police officers, according to journalist Djamel Mazi, tweeting from St-Denis.

Mazi said the sound of explosions had been heard from the area where the gunfight took place. He said locals had been told to leave.

The Daily Telegraph reports counter-terrorist police are trying to arrest a suspect in Friday’s attacks.

Deputy mayor Stephane Peu told i-Tele television gunshots and explosions had been heard since about 4.25pm (NZT). “It is not a new attack but a police intervention.”

[Read the full story here, at NZ Herald News]

Video emerged leading police to concluded there was a ninth gunman involved in Saturday’s attack, which means two are still at large.

Saint-Denis is about 7 miles from the centre of Paris. Perhaps most significantly it is also where the Stade de France is located, scene of one of the terror attacks.

French police are hunting for a second terrorist believed to have escaped after the bomb and gun massacres in Paris.

2 à 3 hommes retranchés dans appartement. Pause dans les tirs, hélico éclaire toits d’immeuble à saint Denis pic.twitter.com/rNRB6xG00J

— Djamel Mazi (@djamel_mazi) November 18, 2015

[2-3 men holed up in apartment. Pause in the shooting , helicopter sheds to St. Denis building roof]

Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks that targeted France’s national soccer stadium, a packed concert hall and popular restaurants and cafes in one of Paris’ trendiest neighborhoods, killing 129 people and wounding more than 350.

French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed Friday: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium. However, there have been gaps in officials’ public statements, which have never fully disclosed how many attackers took part in the deadly rampage. Read the rest of this entry »