Prosecutors: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, mastermind of Paris attacks, killed in raid

As early as past year Abdelhamid Abaaoud was already known to security forces after appearing, laughing, in an Islamic State video.

The latest on the deadly attacks in Paris.

It was confirmed on Thursday that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin linked to a series of extremist plots in Europe over the past two years, had died in a police raid on an apartment in northern Paris on Wednesday.

On Friday, prosecutors said the other two men who detonated explosives vests outside the stadium had entered Europe through Greece on the same day, October 3, pretending to be refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

Valls warned of the dangers still faced by France as lawmakers voted on extending an extraordinary package of security measures for three months. “We must not rule anything out”, Valls said.

The BBC reports that Mr Valls also called on Europe to adopt new measures to share information about airline passengers.

“It’s a condition of our collective security”, he told lawmakers debating the extension of a state of emergency.

If approved, the Bill will also allow off-duty police officers to carry their weapons to allow them to respond faster to an emergency.

The neighbourhood where the siege took place is less than a mile from the Stade de France, one of the targets of Friday’s shootings and suicide bombings, along with a concert hall, bars and restaurants. Italy was also looking for five suspects after an Federal Bureau of Investigation tip-off about possible jihadist attacks on landmark sites including St Peter’s cathedral in the Vatican, the foreign minister said.

The metro station where Abaaoud was seen is not far from where police later found a Seat auto believed to have been used by the attackers.

French police official Jean-Marc Falcone, speaking on France-Info radio, said he was unable to say if Abdeslam, whose brother, Brahim, blew himself up in the attacks, could be back on French territory.

United States and Iraqi intelligence officials say the terrorist group is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region.