UPD: St. Denis becomes battleground in search for Paris Attacks mastermind and 9th attacker (vid)

Paris is in a state of alert after several reports of gunfire made – beginning at around 4.30 a.m. local time and running for more than three hours – during an ongoing operation at St. Denis, north of Paris, and 2km away from the Stade de France where attacks took place on Friday. French police were looking for a new suspect in the Paris attacks that took place on Friday – a ninth man – previously unnoticed who could still be at large. Later, it was noted that the main target of the police operation was the suspected mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud that was believed to have escaped from Syria but is apparently in France.

Abaaoud and another two armed men barricaded themselves in an apartment at rue Gabriel Peri in St. Denis where police operations took place. The other men in the apartment were believed to be Salah Abdeslam, the man whom police have been chasing since the attacks, and another unidentified “ninth attacker”.

Roads are cordoned off in St. Denis and people are called to stay in their homes and away from windows amid reports of “heavy gunfire” where at least one person – a police officer – has been reported injured (not seriously), whereas Le Monde points to two dead.

Some residents have moved to a temporary shelter in the town hall.

The ninth attacker

Video footage of a new suspect in a black Seat with two other attackers opening fire at a bar with assault rifles through the car’s window has been found. The car in question was later found abandoned at the Paris suburb of Montreuil with three AK-47 rifles inside. If there were three people in the Seat, then there were nine attackers shooting in Paris.