French PM: a few attackers used refugees crisis as cover

Police had raided a Paris suburb on Wednesday in search of Belgian terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud where a fierce gunbattle at least two people dead and eight arrested.

Investigators have yet to confirm whether the body of Abdelhamid Abaaoud was among the rubble of a shattered apartment block after police rained fire and grenades on the building in a seven-hour siege.

His body was found in the apartment building targeted in the chaotic and bloody raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, two people died during the raid, including a woman who blew herself up.

Valls presented a bill extending the state of emergency declared after Friday’s attacks for another three months to the lower house of Parliament on Thursday.

“We must not rule anything out”, Valls said to the lawmakers. “We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons”. But it takes place at a time of greater fears both in France and Europe of further terrorism by actors that move more freely between the war zones of the Middle East and the more open society of Europe.

Analysts say the confirmation of his death will focus more attention on the European security services who, ahead of Friday’s attacks thought he was still in Syria.

Authorities in Belgium on Thursday launched six raids in Molenbeek and other areas of Brussels linked to another of the suicide bombers, Bilal Hadfi, a French citizen who blew himself up outside the soccer stadium. The centre would not be an internment camp for Islamist suspects or for French-born jihadis returning from the Middle East, he said. “There is an opening, so to speak, with the Russians. We must be vigilant”, he said. “We think they are honest and we must bring together all our forces”, he told France Inter radio.

A witness has also told Sky News that she saw Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin, near the flats drinking beer and smoking cannabis after the massacres. Next week, French President Francois Hollande is going to Washington and Moscow to push for a stronger worldwide coalition against IS.

Valls did not say there was a specific threat against France involving such weapons, however. The call has spread via Twitter with the hashtag #21h20, standard time for 9:20 p.m., the minute that the attacks began. In January, jihadist gunmen killed 17 people at Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, on the streets and in a Jewish supermarket.

France’s government has already banned planned marches during worldwide climate talks in Paris from November 29 to December 12 because of security concerns.