France had info suspect Abaaoud might have been at St Denis site

Paris - French authorities who ordered Wednesday's police raid on a building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis had information that led them to believe the suspected mastermind of Friday's attacks might have been there, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Speaking at the end of the siege with seven people arrested and two dead, he went on to say that it was impossible at this stage to ascertain who the people in the apartment actually were.

"In the context of the inquiry we have had a lot of work done which allowed us to obtain, through telephony, surveillances and witness statements, elements that could allow us to think that Abaaoud might be in an conspirators' apartment in Saint Denis," he said.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, was initially thought to have pulled the strings from Syria for the attacks that killed 129 people in Paris on Friday.