Two killed and five arrested as police target suspects in Paris apartment

United Kingdom newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday that Serbian police have arrested a man carrying a Syrian passport with the same details as the one found near the body of one of the Paris suicide bombers.

The target of the raid, which filled the streets of St Denis with heavily armed police and soldiers, was Islamic State militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was initially thought to have orchestrated the Paris attacks from Syria, police and justice sources said.

“Investigations are now ongoing regarding where the suspect spent time in Austria and the goal of his stay”, it said.

A manhunt continues for another suspect, Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to have fled across the border to his native Belgium.

Cazeneuve said the majority of those who were involved in the attacks were unknown to the French security services.

Five police officers suffered minor injuries in the siege and a seven-year-old police dog named Diesel was killed.

“I call on the entire global community to take its part in what can only be a common task: to destroy Daesh”, he said. “We don’t know where he is, whether he has the courage to turn himself in”.

At least six of the eight terrorists behind the Paris attacks have been identified but a further suspect Saleh Abdeslam, 26, has so far eluded capture.

“South Africa stands firm in strong condemnation in all attacks targeting innocent civilians and we reiterate our stance that terrorism in whatever form can not be condoned”.

Mohamed Abdeslam, who was arrested and questioned following the attack before being released on Monday, said his brother was devout but showed no signs of being a radical Islamist.

Shooting began at about 4.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and police special forces of the RAID unit were still involved in exchanges of fire three hours later, witnesses said.

Belgian authorities say two men detained over the weekend in Molenbeek in connection with the attacks are now under arrest for “attempted terrorism and participation in the activities of a terrorist group”. In January, terrorists killed 17 people in a series of attacks that included the storming of the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

As authorities scrambled to find those responsible, the grieving French tried to return to the humdrum of daily life.

Hollande will observe the silence at the Sorbonne University, in recognition of the large number of young victims, as Paris struggles to come to terms with the atrocities that come 10 months after jihadists hit satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.