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| St-Denis raid: loud booms and gunfire shatter silence of suburban morning | St-Denis raid: loud booms and gunfire shatter silence of suburban morning |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| 4am | 4am |
| Five days after the murderous attacks in Paris, the city is asleep. But in St-Denis, a town in the northern suburbs, a major operation is underway in the dark. France’s rapid intervention brigade moves silently, closing in on two inconspicuous and down-at-heel side-street: rue du Corbillon and rue Fontaine. | Five days after the murderous attacks in Paris, the city is asleep. But in St-Denis, a town in the northern suburbs, a major operation is underway in the dark. France’s rapid intervention brigade moves silently, closing in on two inconspicuous and down-at-heel side-street: rue du Corbillon and rue Fontaine. |
| The information is precise. It comes from telephone intercepts. The suspected “mastermind” of the Paris shootings, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, has been traced. Last seen in Raqqa, Syria, he is seemingly back in France, a mere 2km away from the Stade de France, the scene of three suicide bombings on Friday. Apparently with him is Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive terrorist whose brother Brahim blew himself up in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. And other unidentified suspects. | The information is precise. It comes from telephone intercepts. The suspected “mastermind” of the Paris shootings, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, has been traced. Last seen in Raqqa, Syria, he is seemingly back in France, a mere 2km away from the Stade de France, the scene of three suicide bombings on Friday. Apparently with him is Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive terrorist whose brother Brahim blew himself up in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. And other unidentified suspects. |
| Related: Paris attacks: suspected mastermind Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud was target of raids – latest news | Related: Paris attacks: suspected mastermind Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud was target of raids – latest news |
| The trail leads to 8 rue du Corbillon. The address is, improbably, a primary school, the Jules Guesdes elementary. The beige-painted modern building overlooks a playground; its entrance is a grand remnant from an older structure, with columns and a portico; the ground floor is home to classrooms and 326 pupils. | The trail leads to 8 rue du Corbillon. The address is, improbably, a primary school, the Jules Guesdes elementary. The beige-painted modern building overlooks a playground; its entrance is a grand remnant from an older structure, with columns and a portico; the ground floor is home to classrooms and 326 pupils. |
| Upstairs are a series of rundown private apartments, including a squat. Inside, police believe, are Abu Oud and his accomplices. The assumption is that they are armed and highly dangerous; the operation perilous. | |
| The road, with its hairdresser, car repair workshop, and shabby bar has had problems in the past: with junkies, one of whom opened fire last year with a gun. But this is different. St-Denis is a historic town better known for its Gothic basilica and association with early French kings. It is about to be transformed into an Afghanistan-like theatre of war. | The road, with its hairdresser, car repair workshop, and shabby bar has had problems in the past: with junkies, one of whom opened fire last year with a gun. But this is different. St-Denis is a historic town better known for its Gothic basilica and association with early French kings. It is about to be transformed into an Afghanistan-like theatre of war. |
| 4.20am | 4.20am |
| The rapid intervention brigade, heavily armed, approaches the target. Their objective is two third-floor apartments at number 8. It’s unclear who shoots first but suddenly there is ferocious fire coming from inside. The suspects are better armed than the police had initially expected. A full-blown gun battle erupts. | The rapid intervention brigade, heavily armed, approaches the target. Their objective is two third-floor apartments at number 8. It’s unclear who shoots first but suddenly there is ferocious fire coming from inside. The suspects are better armed than the police had initially expected. A full-blown gun battle erupts. |
| Neighbours wake to apocalyptic sounds: loud booms, the rattle of automatic gunfire, shouts. The suspects fight back. Over the next 15 minutes there are bursts of Kalashnikov fire. Local residents in the central St-Denis area are rudely jolted awake; it seems that Paris’s Friday nightmare has a real, ongoing sequel. | Neighbours wake to apocalyptic sounds: loud booms, the rattle of automatic gunfire, shouts. The suspects fight back. Over the next 15 minutes there are bursts of Kalashnikov fire. Local residents in the central St-Denis area are rudely jolted awake; it seems that Paris’s Friday nightmare has a real, ongoing sequel. |
| “I was woken up by explosions. For about 15-20 minutes there were bursts of automatic gunfire, and individual shots. From our window we could see flashes of light - gunfire, as if grenades had been thrown. Afterwards helicopters arrived with spotlights, lighting up the roof,” one young mother tells Le Monde. She adds: “We turned on the lights so the children were less scared.” | “I was woken up by explosions. For about 15-20 minutes there were bursts of automatic gunfire, and individual shots. From our window we could see flashes of light - gunfire, as if grenades had been thrown. Afterwards helicopters arrived with spotlights, lighting up the roof,” one young mother tells Le Monde. She adds: “We turned on the lights so the children were less scared.” |
| Nabil Guerram, 36, who lives near St-Denis basilica, says: “I was woken with a start at 4.20 by the sound of extremely heavy gunfire. My children were crying. There was non-stop fire for 20-25 mins, then calm, then it started up again for a very long time.” Another local, Mathilde Bouttemy, says: “I was woken at 4.30am by explosions. I thought it was bombs. Afterwards I heard bursts of gunfire from a Kalashnikov, from 4.30am to 4.45am.” | |
| According to police sources, a woman at the apartment has been under surveillance for several days, on suspicion that she is sheltering Abu Oud and other suspects. Other information comes from witnesses. Still holed up inside and defiant, the armed suspects shoot and kill a police dog, Diesel, sent into the apartment to ascertain how dangerous the situation is. At 4.30am the local mayor Denis Paillard arrives. | |
| 5am | 5am |
| News of the assault spreads rapidly via Twitter and social media. The gun-battle continues. Some 110 heavily armed, elite officers are involved. They rain fire into the flat from the roof of the building opposite, witnesses say, shooting across the narrow alley. Police begin evacuating residents from neighbouring apartments, funnelling them out into the still-dark street and to safety. | |
| In the immediate vicinity police seal off both roads with a 500-metre cordon. Ambulances arrive. The first journalists scramble to the scene. The picture is confused: frequent percussive rumbles can be heard, but the nature of the armed operation underway is unclear. | In the immediate vicinity police seal off both roads with a 500-metre cordon. Ambulances arrive. The first journalists scramble to the scene. The picture is confused: frequent percussive rumbles can be heard, but the nature of the armed operation underway is unclear. |
| Slowly but surely, the rapid intervention force is prevailing. One of the terrorists is dead, killed by a grenade. Initial reports say incorrectly a sniper shot him. Five police officers are lightly wounded, as well as a fireman. | Slowly but surely, the rapid intervention force is prevailing. One of the terrorists is dead, killed by a grenade. Initial reports say incorrectly a sniper shot him. Five police officers are lightly wounded, as well as a fireman. |
| 6.15am | 6.15am |
| After an hour and a half of furious exchanges, there is a lull in the fighting. And then something unexpected happens: a woman appears at the window of the third-floor apartment. She is said to be the cousin of Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, the alleged “mastermind”. What happens next is bloody and unprecedented. | After an hour and a half of furious exchanges, there is a lull in the fighting. And then something unexpected happens: a woman appears at the window of the third-floor apartment. She is said to be the cousin of Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, the alleged “mastermind”. What happens next is bloody and unprecedented. |
| One eyewitness Christian, 20, gives an account to Le Parisien newspaper. He says: “During a ten or fifteen minute lull in the shooting I heard a woman shouting: ‘Help, help, help me!’ The police asked her to identify herself and to show herself. She showed her hands but she didn’t reveal her face. She withdrew them and then put them up again several times. They shouted at her: ‘Keep your hands in the air!’ They told her: ‘We’re going to shoot.’ | One eyewitness Christian, 20, gives an account to Le Parisien newspaper. He says: “During a ten or fifteen minute lull in the shooting I heard a woman shouting: ‘Help, help, help me!’ The police asked her to identify herself and to show herself. She showed her hands but she didn’t reveal her face. She withdrew them and then put them up again several times. They shouted at her: ‘Keep your hands in the air!’ They told her: ‘We’re going to shoot.’ |
| “The shooting resumed. The police were firing from the roof of the building opposite. Suddenly there was an enormous explosion [from the window, inside the flat]. It was probably the woman who blew herself up. The windows shattered. Lots of objects from the apartment were thrown into the street, pieces of human flesh as well. They are still there. You can see a bit of the head, of skin, of ribs.” | “The shooting resumed. The police were firing from the roof of the building opposite. Suddenly there was an enormous explosion [from the window, inside the flat]. It was probably the woman who blew herself up. The windows shattered. Lots of objects from the apartment were thrown into the street, pieces of human flesh as well. They are still there. You can see a bit of the head, of skin, of ribs.” |
| Another witness, Thibault Chaffotte, tells Liberation: “I heard police talking about a blonde woman with long hair. I believe this was the suicide bomber. They told her: ‘Don’t lower your arms. Put your hands in the air.’ Afterwards, there was a very loud explosion. I think that’s when she activated her bomb. It was big. Many of the windows in the road shattered.” | Another witness, Thibault Chaffotte, tells Liberation: “I heard police talking about a blonde woman with long hair. I believe this was the suicide bomber. They told her: ‘Don’t lower your arms. Put your hands in the air.’ Afterwards, there was a very loud explosion. I think that’s when she activated her bomb. It was big. Many of the windows in the road shattered.” |
| This is France’s – and Europe’s – first ever female suicide bombing. It is another grim milestone, after five extraordinary days which begin on Friday with the murder of 129 people, orchestrated by the same cell seemingly holed up in rue du Corbillion. This is the country’s worst violence since the second world war. President François Hollande’s statement on Monday - that the nation is at war - seems a perfectly accurate description of events. | This is France’s – and Europe’s – first ever female suicide bombing. It is another grim milestone, after five extraordinary days which begin on Friday with the murder of 129 people, orchestrated by the same cell seemingly holed up in rue du Corbillion. This is the country’s worst violence since the second world war. President François Hollande’s statement on Monday - that the nation is at war - seems a perfectly accurate description of events. |
| 6.20am | 6.20am |
| The rapid intervention brigade arrests three suspects at 8 rue du Corbillon. They include Jawad Ben Dow, the landlord of the apartment where the suspects were staying, and a female friend. | The rapid intervention brigade arrests three suspects at 8 rue du Corbillon. They include Jawad Ben Dow, the landlord of the apartment where the suspects were staying, and a female friend. |
| Before he is handcuffed and taken away by police, Dow protests his innocence to French media. He tells AFP: “A friend asked me to put up two of his friends for a few days. I said there was no mattress. They told me: ‘It’s not a problem.’ They just wanted water and to pray.” He added: “I was asked to do a favour, I did a favour. I didn’t know they were terrorists. I didn’t know where they came from. I didn’t know anything.” The female friend said she’d slept in the apartment herself last week and it was a “kind of squat”. The two visitors arrived two days ago, she says. | Before he is handcuffed and taken away by police, Dow protests his innocence to French media. He tells AFP: “A friend asked me to put up two of his friends for a few days. I said there was no mattress. They told me: ‘It’s not a problem.’ They just wanted water and to pray.” He added: “I was asked to do a favour, I did a favour. I didn’t know they were terrorists. I didn’t know where they came from. I didn’t know anything.” The female friend said she’d slept in the apartment herself last week and it was a “kind of squat”. The two visitors arrived two days ago, she says. |
| 6.40am | 6.40am |
| The police and mayor’s office in St-Denis sends out a series of urgent public safety announcements. They urge residents to stay indoors, with their windows closed. All schools and educational institutions in the town will remain shut, the authorities say. And public transport is suspended. The line 13 metro station – a vital artery for workers heading south into the centre of Paris – is closed. | The police and mayor’s office in St-Denis sends out a series of urgent public safety announcements. They urge residents to stay indoors, with their windows closed. All schools and educational institutions in the town will remain shut, the authorities say. And public transport is suspended. The line 13 metro station – a vital artery for workers heading south into the centre of Paris – is closed. |
| The shooting briefly halts. After about five minutes it resumes again. Five men are still holed up in the apartment. | The shooting briefly halts. After about five minutes it resumes again. Five men are still holed up in the apartment. |
| 7am | 7am |
| The army arrives, lending a further surreal element to what would ordinarily be a suburban morning on Paris’s working-class periphery. Soldiers armed with rifles and fatigues patrol on the edge of the operation. Some citizens react to the dramatic events being shown live on TV with sang-froid. Others with fear. A young man who has come down to the police line near St-Denis’s grand town hall building says his father, aged 60, lives in a building very close to the raid: “He has barricaded himself into the bathroom. He’s panicked. He’s just waiting for orders from police.” | The army arrives, lending a further surreal element to what would ordinarily be a suburban morning on Paris’s working-class periphery. Soldiers armed with rifles and fatigues patrol on the edge of the operation. Some citizens react to the dramatic events being shown live on TV with sang-froid. Others with fear. A young man who has come down to the police line near St-Denis’s grand town hall building says his father, aged 60, lives in a building very close to the raid: “He has barricaded himself into the bathroom. He’s panicked. He’s just waiting for orders from police.” |
| 7.30am | 7.30am |
| A series of four or five big explosions can be heard across the town, an unmistakeable rumbling. Writing on Twitter, Caroline Piquet reports a “series of enormous explosion, sounds like grenades”. It appears the operation by SWAT teams is entering its final stages. | A series of four or five big explosions can be heard across the town, an unmistakeable rumbling. Writing on Twitter, Caroline Piquet reports a “series of enormous explosion, sounds like grenades”. It appears the operation by SWAT teams is entering its final stages. |
| Fatima Bourahli, 26, stands in the street with a coat on over her pyjamas looking over at the police line. Soldiers crouch with automatic weapons on corners. “I live not far from the stadium and we’d already heard the explosions of the two attacks on Friday night,” she says. “My daughter is six and she’s scared and confused. The schools here are shut today, children are staying home. People are really scared and pretty tense. The government says we’re at war.” | Fatima Bourahli, 26, stands in the street with a coat on over her pyjamas looking over at the police line. Soldiers crouch with automatic weapons on corners. “I live not far from the stadium and we’d already heard the explosions of the two attacks on Friday night,” she says. “My daughter is six and she’s scared and confused. The schools here are shut today, children are staying home. People are really scared and pretty tense. The government says we’re at war.” |
| Didi Wafae, 63, who lives a few streets away from the raid, adds: “People are really scared.” Djamila Khaldi, a 54-year-old cleaner who lives near the St-Denis Basilica, which draws vast numbers of tourists each year, says: “I heard the shots and I just thought, there must be some kind of stand-off, terrorists must be hiding here. Already since Friday’s attacks there was a heavy atmosphere here. What can you say? Terrorism has come to St-Denis, the mood has changed and it will stay that way. People are distrustful, looking at each other. St-Denis will be labelled for this now. It’s a real shame.” | Didi Wafae, 63, who lives a few streets away from the raid, adds: “People are really scared.” Djamila Khaldi, a 54-year-old cleaner who lives near the St-Denis Basilica, which draws vast numbers of tourists each year, says: “I heard the shots and I just thought, there must be some kind of stand-off, terrorists must be hiding here. Already since Friday’s attacks there was a heavy atmosphere here. What can you say? Terrorism has come to St-Denis, the mood has changed and it will stay that way. People are distrustful, looking at each other. St-Denis will be labelled for this now. It’s a real shame.” |
| 8.05am | 8.05am |
| France’s justice minister, Christiane Taubira, tweets that the operation is over – prematurely, it turns out. More suspects are arrested and led out into the street. Photographers capture one man being taken by police into the street, naked from the waist down. In total, seven people are detained. | France’s justice minister, Christiane Taubira, tweets that the operation is over – prematurely, it turns out. More suspects are arrested and led out into the street. Photographers capture one man being taken by police into the street, naked from the waist down. In total, seven people are detained. |
| Three of the suspects were found inside the apartment, police said. Two more were discovered trying to hide under rubble. The two others are the landlord of the property, who denies any wrongdoing, and his friend. | Three of the suspects were found inside the apartment, police said. Two more were discovered trying to hide under rubble. The two others are the landlord of the property, who denies any wrongdoing, and his friend. |
| 9.30am | 9.30am |
| Politicians in St-Denis try to make sense of the astonishing events of early Wednesday morning that have unfolded on their doorstep. Zaia Boughilas, local councillor for the Green party, arrived at the town hall for an urgent meeting called by the mayor as the police operation entered its final stages. “There was already very strong emotion here after Friday,” she says. | Politicians in St-Denis try to make sense of the astonishing events of early Wednesday morning that have unfolded on their doorstep. Zaia Boughilas, local councillor for the Green party, arrived at the town hall for an urgent meeting called by the mayor as the police operation entered its final stages. “There was already very strong emotion here after Friday,” she says. |
| She says the town of 106,000 people, which has a large working-class population, was diverse, with its own share of “social distress” – such as unemployment – but that it was a vibrant “very welcoming, open place”. | She says the town of 106,000 people, which has a large working-class population, was diverse, with its own share of “social distress” – such as unemployment – but that it was a vibrant “very welcoming, open place”. |
| 10.00am | 10.00am |
| A government meeting is held at the Élysée Palace as the operation continues. The authorities confirm that five police were injured during the shootout, none seriously. Given that the suspects were heavily armed, the morning can be marked as a major success. | A government meeting is held at the Élysée Palace as the operation continues. The authorities confirm that five police were injured during the shootout, none seriously. Given that the suspects were heavily armed, the morning can be marked as a major success. |
| 11.37am | 11.37am |
| The operation is over. It has lasted seven hours. Two suspects are dead, seven arrested. Police are trying to verify if the suspected “mastermind”, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, was among those detained or killed. The likelihood is that he remains at large. | The operation is over. It has lasted seven hours. Two suspects are dead, seven arrested. Police are trying to verify if the suspected “mastermind”, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, was among those detained or killed. The likelihood is that he remains at large. |