Paris prosecutor confirms three died in Saint-Denis raid

PARIS

Paris chief prosecutor today confirmed that three people died in Wednesday's police raid on an apartment in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis.

However, in a later statement on Friday, Francois Molins’ office said female remains at the scene had been formally identified as belonging to Hasna Aitboulahcen – now widely dubbed Europe’s first female suicide bomber.

"Yesterday night a female body, whose identity remains unconfirmed, was found at the apartment," Molins added, bringing the total number of dead in the Saint-Denis raid to three.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, accused of being the mastermind behind last week’s Paris attacks, was killed in the seven-hour operation, Molins had announced on Thursday.

The prosecutor’s office also said a handbag was retrieved from the scene "where investigators had found a passport in the name of Hasna Aitboulahcen".

On Friday, a statement said 26-year-old Aitboulahcen’s remains had been identified via digital fingerprinting.

Aitboulahcen’s cousin, Abaaoud was thought to be in Syria but French authorities launched Wednesday's raid after having been led there by a tip-off and telephone surveillance suggesting the suspect was in France.

He had been linked to a number of terror attacks, including a shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May last year that killed four plus a foiled attack on a Paris-bound train in August this year.

Abaaoud is also suspected by the Belgian authorities of helping to organize and fund a terror cell in eastern Belgium that was targeted in a police raid in January.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court earlier this year after being tried in absentia for recruiting for Daesh.

The Nov. 13 attacks in the French capital saw at least 129 people killed.

Police continue to hunt remaining suspect

Speaking to France Info on Friday, national police chief Jean-Marc Falcone said that all security forces "are working together" in the hunt for remaining suspect, Salah Abdeslam.

"We are working together and sharing information every day. There is a real collaboration between the services; no one is working alone, that would be unacceptable," Falcone said.

However, he claimed co-operation at the European level was "not working well enough, it’s not advanced enough, not integrated enough".

He added that further raids were carried out yesterday.

"As we have said before, as we close one door, we open another. We will continue to carry out raids if the investigation uncovers individuals who took part in any way in the preparation for these attacks, or individuals who could eventually carry out these attacks in the coming days or weeks," Falcone said.

According to an Interior Ministry statement released late Wednesday, police have conducted 414 raids under emergency powers since Sunday night, leading to 60 arrests and 75 weapons seizures.