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LATEST: The suspected mastermind of the attacks that killed 129 in Paris was among those killed in a police raid in a suburb of the French capital on Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant, who had boasted of mounting attacks in Europe for Daesh, was accused of orchestrating Friday's coordinated bombings and shootings.
Police originally thought he was in Syria, but their investigations led them to a house in the Paris suburb of St. Denis and heavily armed officers stormed the building before dawn, triggering a massive firefight and multiple explosions.
"Abdel Hamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified, after comparing fingerprints, as having been killed during the (police) raid," the statement said. "It was the body we had discovered in the building, riddled with bullets."
EARLIER REPORT
French investigators would not publicly identify one of two people killed in a terror raid north of Paris early Wednesday — the other being a woman who detonated a suicide vest — but The Washington Post, citing two senior European intelligence officials, reported that the suspected mastermind of Friday's terror attacks was dead.
The man believed to be the architect of the massacre, 27-year-old Belgian militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had mocked Western authorities for his ability to slip out of their sights, into and out of Syria. Investigators traced him to an apartment just north of Paris in suburban Saint-Denis by tracking phone conversations and piecing together surveillance images and witness accounts, according to Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve.
The Post reports its intelligence sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Police confirm a woman in a suicide vest blew herself up during the raid, severely damaging the building's structural integrity. She apparently was Abaaoud's cousin, in her twenties and from the northwestern suburb of Clichy La Garenne, French media reported.
Molins said a terror cell linked to the Paris massacre had been operating out of that apartment, and was ready to act again. He said at one point, police fired some 5,000 rounds during 'uninterrupted' shooting that lasted nearly an hour. A reinforced door to the apartment initially blocked the heavily-armed police squads, he added.
In addition, the manhunt for Salah Abdeslam, a Daesh (IS) gunman believed to have taken part in Friday's attacks, continued Wednesday. Molins said neither Abaaoud nor Abdeslam were among the seven men arrested in Wednesday's raid.
Abaaoud was believed to be in Syria after a January police raid in Belgium, but bragged in Daesh (IS) propaganda of his ability to move back and forth between Europe and Syria undetected.
One of the men arrested said he lived in the apartment, let some people stay there as a favour, and "didn't know they're terrorists." Jawad Bendaoud added that someone had "asked me to put some people up for two, three days, and I provided this service."
He said, "I don't know where they come from ... If I would have known, I wouldn't have let them stay."
Bendaoud spoke to BFMTV as police led him away. He had been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing his best friend in a 2006 fight.
French police confirmed that five officers suffered minor injuries in the raid. A police dog was also killed when the female suicide bomber blew herself up.
The apartment is just over a mile from the Stade de France stadium, which was targeted by three suicide bombers during Friday's attacks. Riot police cleared people from the streets, pointing guns at curious locals to move them off the roads.
One person who lived near the site of the siege posted a 10-second video of the scene on her street. A series of bangs sounding like automatic weapons fire could be heard. The message accompanying the tweet translates to "It's an intervention by police ... street closed, officers, etc."
French authorities sent out a bulletin to police across Europe asking them to watch out for a Citroen Xsara car that could be carrying Salah Abdeslam, a Spanish security official told AP. One of his brothers, Brahim, blew himself up in Paris.
In all, overnight raids across France led to 25 arrests and the seizure of 34 weapons. The new tally was announced Wednesday by the Interior Ministry.
The weapons seized since Friday include 11 military-style firearms, 33 rifles and 31 handguns, according to police.
Seven attackers died in Friday's gun-and-bomb rampage through Paris that killed 129 and wounded over 350 others. Police had said before the raids that they were hunting for two fugitives suspected of taking part as well as any accomplices. That would bring the number of attackers to at least nine.
And French president Francois Hollande said any places where people are "glorifying" terrorism will be shut down. The bill to extend France's state of emergency for three months includes a measure that enables authorities to close "any association or gathering" - which notably includes mosques and community groups - that would encourage people to carry out terrorist acts.
Speaking on French television Wednesday, Hollande said "we are at war" with Daesh (IS). He called for a "large coalition" working together against militants to destroy a group that threatens the whole world and "commits massacres" in the Mideast.
Hollande told lawmakers, “I know you have at heart the willingness to undertake this task.” He added that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle just left to help French military operations in Syria against Daesh (IS).
Denmark, Sweden raise threat level; Saint-Denis raid over
Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday raised their threat status by one notch to the second-highest level, citing the elevated risk of a terrorist attack after last week's bloodshed in Paris.
"Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Danish police is raising its internal preparedness level" to "significantly heightened preparedness", police said in a statement.
They cited the "uncertain situation in a number of European countries."
However, it said the Danish intelligence service PET had "not changed its assessment of the terrorist threat against Denmark, which is still considered serious."
The Danish public would not see any difference in their daily lives as a result of the change, police said.
In February, a Danish-born extremist killed a Danish filmmaker outside a cultural centre. Hours later, he killed a Jewish man at a synagogue, as a bar mitzvah was being celebrated outside.
Just hours after Denmark raised its threat level on Wednesday, police evacuated one of two terminals at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport after two men were overheard talking about a bomb in one of their bags.
The two men, who were arrested, told police they were "only joking". The terminal was reopened after several hours.
Sweden also raised its threat level several hours after Denmark, to "high", also the second-highest level.
"The decision is based on an assessment by the National Centre for Terrorist Threat Assessment (NCT) which is responsible for conducting threat assessments for Sweden and Swedish interests abroad," intelligence service Sapo said in a statement.
"One of the reasons for the heightened level is that Sapo has received concrete information and considers that we must act within the framework of our counterterror work," it said.
"The attacks in Paris on November 13 show that IS may have an increased ability to carry out even relatively complex attacks in Europe. Individuals may be inspired by these attacks," it said.
The Swedish prosecution agency meanwhile announced it had opened a preliminary inquiry into "plans to commit terrorist crimes."
Suspected Islamic State extremists killed 129 people and injured hundreds in coordinated attacks in Paris last week.
Earlier in the day:
13:03 GMT - Latest developments:
12:51 GMT - French president François Hollande urges nation not to 'give in to fear.'
12:17 GMT - Today's Saint-Denis anti-terrorist operation ‘confirms we are in the war,’ French President Francois Hollande says.
11:45 GMT - All 129 fatalities in last week's Paris attacks have now been identified but dozens of other casualties remain in critical condition, a statement from the French cabinet said today.
A total of 221 people remain in hospital, dozens of them seriously hurt.
11:34 GMT - Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in Paris' terror attacks, was briefly held and fined in February for possession of cannabis, Dutch police say.
"He was arrested during a routine roadside exercise in early February," a police spokesman told AFP, adding that a ‘limited’ quantity of cannabis was found in his car.
Abdeslam was allowed to continue on his way after paying a 70 euro ($75) fine, the police said.
11:17 GMT - French Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Paris Prosecutor François Molins have not confirmed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud has been arrested or killed during the Saint-Denis raids.
10:56 GMT - Confusion around the Saint-Denis church. French police forces are hacking down the church door with an axe. Journalists are unsure if a colleague or a suspect could be hiding in the bell tower.
Seven arrests in Saint-Denis after post-attacks morning raids, including three in the raided apartment, a police source confirms
Frantic journalists
10:40 GMT - Panic in Saint-Denis as tens of journalists run away from police forces patrolling the nearby church, says AFP's Marie Griffard.
One of them knocks on the door: "They are securing the area, they are trying to get in the church".
Photographers and camera crews huddle around them.
10:39 GMT - French aircraft carrier Charle-de-Gaulle leaves port for mission against its targets.
EARLIER REPORT
09:40 GMT - Here's the current situation:
EARLIER REPORT
A man arrested during the raid told AFP he had lent his apartment to two people from Belgium as a favour to a friend, before being led off by officers.
"A friend asked me to put up two of his friends for a few days," the man told AFP.
"I said that there was no mattress, they told me 'it's not a problem', they just wanted water and to pray," the man said on condition of anonymity before being handcuffed and led away by police.
"I was asked to do a favour, I did a favour. I didn't know they were terrorists."
EARLIER REPORT: Paris prosecutor says police have released family and friends of jihadists Ismael Mostefai and Samy Amimour who blew themselves up in the Bataclan concert hall.
At least three police officers were injured in the morning raids in Saint-Denis outside Paris, which have been ongoing since 4.30 am (0330 GMT).
\UPDATE: Mastermind was known to security forces as early as last year
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the target of the morning raid, was known to security forces as early as last year after he appeared, laughing, in an Islamic State video at the wheel of a car dragging mutilated bodies behind it.
Abaaoud -- who hails from Molenbeek, a Brussels district dubbed an extremist hotbed -- was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison in July for running a network to recruit jihadists to Syria.
He has also boasted in videos about planning attacks in Europe.
"He was a little jerk," recalled a former classmate who told Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure that Abaaoud used to harass pupils and teachers and also got into trouble for stealing wallets.
EARLIER REPORT
Metro suspended : Metro line 13 connecting Saint-Denis to the city centre has been partially suspended "at the request of the police".
What we know so far...
TWO PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AFTER NORTH PARIS SHOOTOUT.
TWO DEAD IN PARIS SIEGE, INCLUDING WOMAN WHO BLEW HERSELF UP: POLICE
AFP JOURNALIST AT THE SCENE SAYS FRENCH MILITARY IS DEPLOYED TO NORTH PARIS AMID SHOOTOUT.
Stay inside - Residents told to stay inside in Saint-Denis north of Paris: reports
Army fatigues - 'Live' television footage is showing heavily armed officers in fatigues lining the streets of Saint-Denis as police target an apartment in the neighbourhood.
AFP's Sarah Brethes, on the scene, has spoken to 26-year-old Hayat Balabdi who was visiting friends in the area of the shootout.
"It started around three in the morning, when I was leaving my friend's place. I could have been shot," he said.
"I heard a gunshot, I thought it was a score being settled. But then the shots continued, loads of police reinforcements arrived and closed off Avenue de la Republique. It was like a war."
Though he does not live in Saint Denis, Balabdi said that he knew the area well.
"I never thought terrorists could have been hiding out here."
French media are reporting two deaths.
RAID TARGETED SUSPECTED PARIS ATTACKS MASTERMIND ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD: POLICE SOURCE.
A large police operation is underway in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with reports of heavy gunfire. Multiple suspects are believed to be barricaded in an apartment building.
French TV station BFMTV said police officers had been wounded during the raid.
Saint-Denis is located near the Stade de France soccer stadium where three suicide bombers detonated killed themselves and another pedestrian.
The operation, which began before dawn in Saint Denis, was still ongoing at 0615 am local time.
Shots rang out in the Saint Denis area of northern Paris early on Wednesday as special police forces launched an operation to catch one of the suspects from Friday night's shooting in the French capital, TV stations BFMTV and iTele both reported.
BFMTV said some police had been wounded during the operation.
Nov 17, 2015
Wanted Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was in Austria in September, telling police after arriving from Germany with two men that he was ‘on holiday,’ Austrian authorities said Tuesday.
The younger brother of Brahim Abdeslam, who blew himself up in Friday's attacks, was stopped in their car on September 9 "and said that he wanted to spend a week's holiday in Austria," the interior ministry said.
All three were allowed to continue their journey after the routine traffic check. The two other men "have so far not been named in connection" with the Paris attacks, the ministry said in a statement.
"Investigations are currently ongoing regarding where the suspect spent time in Austria and the purpose of his stay," it said.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, is being sought by French investigators who have issued a photograph of him -- describing him as ‘dangerous’ -- while Belgium has issued an international arrest warrant.
The French citizen living in Belgium allegedly hired a black Polo, registered in Belgium, which was found near the Bataclan concert venue in Paris, where three attackers killed 89 people.
Brussels police on Monday surrounded a property in Brussels' Molenbeek district, seen as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, but did not find him.
A third brother, Mohamed Abdeslam was arrested in Molenbeek on Saturday, but released without charge on Monday with his lawyer saying her client had an alibi and was not in Paris on Friday evening.
Police find possible third car linked to Paris terror attacks
A third car possibly linked to the deadly Paris attacks was found early Tuesday in a northern district of the French capital, police sources told AFP.
"A black (Renault) Clio found ... in the 18th district may have been used in the preparation of the attacks," a source said.
"The car was seen on the A1 motorway as part of what may have been preparatory contacts between groups in Paris and Belgium," the source added.
But another source said further analysis by forensic investigators was needed ‘to determine its involvement.’
The car, found parked partly over a pedestrian crossing, has Belgian number-plates, an AFP journalist said.
After checking the vehicle was not booby-trapped, it was towed away by police for further examination.
Two other Belgian-registered vehicles have been linked to the Paris attacks Friday that left 129 people dead.
EARLIER REPORT
The mastermind and the killers... names, faces so far
Investigators probing the deadly Paris attacks have so far identified five of seven gunmen and suicide bombers whose bodies were found at three sites across the city, while the hunt is on for others.
Here is a look at the men behind France's worst-ever terror attacks, which struck a concert venue, bars, restaurants, and a stadium.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud
A leading Belgian militant in Syria who has boasted in videos about planning attacks in Europe and evaded police in his home country is being investigated as a possible mastermind of the Paris attacks, a French source said Monday.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent, has fought along the Daesh (IS) group in Syria and has been on the run since police stormed a cell in eastern Belgium's Verviers in January.
Investigators now see a link with the worst terror attacks in French history, which on Friday night led to the deaths of 129 people and were claimed by IS.
"It's a serious hypothesis," a French source close the investigation told AFP, adding that Abaaoud is still living in Syria -- large areas of which are IS-controlled.
Abaaoud, who in July was sentenced in absentia by a Belgian court to 20 years in prison, was in contact with at least one of the Abdeslam brothers.
Omar Ismail Mostefai
(YouTube)
The 29-year-old French national blew himself up at the Bataclan music venue, one of three attackers who killed 89 people there in the bloodiest scene of Friday night's violence.
His identity was confirmed using a severed fingertip found at the site.
Born on November 21, 1985 in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, Mostefai was known to police as a petty criminal with eight convictions between 2004 and 2010 but spent no time in jail.
Between 2005-2012, he lived in Chartres, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Paris, his former neighbours told AFP, and regularly attended a mosque a few kilometres away in Luce, a source close to the investigation said.
He had been identified by the authorities in 2010 as having been radicalised but had never been previously "implicated in a terrorist network or plot", the Paris prosecutor said.
One of six children, he is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2014, slipping under the authorities' radar.
The father of a daughter born in 2010, Mostefai was understood to have moved to Algeria with his family, his brother told AFP, saying the two had cut ties several years ago. The brother was one of six relatives arrested by police as part of their inquiries.
Turkish police had twice warned their French counterparts about Mostefai in December 2014 and June 2015 but had "never heard back from France on the matter," a Turkish official said.
Samy Amimour
The second Bataclan suicide bomber to be identified was 28-year-old Samy Amimour from Drancy, a northeastern suburb of Paris.
He was known to anti-terror investigators after being charged on October 19, 2012 with "conspiracy to commit terrorism" over an attempt to travel to Yemen but was released on bail.
He left for Syria on September 11, 2013, violating the terms of his bail, and prompting judges to issue an international warrant for his arrest.
In summer 2014 he was still in Syria and his family told AFP their hopes of seeing him again faded because he had married there.
Three of his family members were taken into custody early on Monday.
Brahim Abdeslam
The 31-year-old French national living in Belgium blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, seriously wounding one person.
Born on July 30, 1984, he is one of three brothers linked to the probe.
He is suspected of hiring a black Seat car, registered in Belgium, that was seen by witnesses at several attack sites and found late Saturday in Montreuil, east of Paris. Inside were three Kalashnikov assault rifles, 11 empty magazines and five which were full.
Dutch media reports say his name appears in police files alongside that of leading Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud in relation to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011. Abaaoud is believed to head a Belgian Daesh cell, which was dismantled in January.
Local media reported that Abdeslam used to run a bar in Brussels' impoverished Molenbeek district, which is known as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. A police document obtained by AFP suggests it was shut down because police believed customers were smoking marijuana there.
Salah Abdeslam, wanted
His younger brother, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, is currently being sought by French investigators who have issued a photograph of him -- describing him as "dangerous" -- while Belgium has issued international warrant for his arrest.
He hired a black Polo, also registered in Belgium, which was found near the Bataclan concert venue.
Brussels police on Monday surrounded a property in Molenbeek, but did not find him.
The third brother, Mohamed Abdeslam was arrested in Molenbeek on Saturday, but released "without charge" on Monday with his lawyer saying her client had an alibi and was not in Paris on Friday evening.
Bilal Hadfi
The 20-year-old was one of three assailants who blew themselves up outside the French national stadium, killing one person, as France was playing Germany in a football friendly attended by 80,000 fans, including French President Francois Hollande.
Investigators say Hadfi was a French national who was living in Belgium and had spent time in Syria.
Ahmad Al Mohammad
Close to the body of a second bomber outside the Stade de France, investigators found a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, who was born on September 10, 1990, in the Syrian city of Idlib.
A passport bearing that name had been registered on the Greek island of Leros on October 3, with the attacker's fingerprints matching those taken during the registration process. The holder of the passport was later registered as crossing from Macedonia into Serbia where he formally applied for asylum, Serbian officials said.
But investigators are still trying to verify if the passport is indeed genuine and the name is not known to French anti-terror police. Serbia detained a migrant on Monday whose passport contained the same data.
Nov 17, 2015
France has listed more than 10,000 people suspected of being radicalised or potential security threats, including homegrown assailant Omar Ismail Mostefai who killed scores of people at Paris's Bataclan music on Friday.
According to police sources, the so-called "fiche S" ("S file" in French) is updated daily to include individuals suspected of links to a terrorist movement or group.
The "S" stands for the suspects' potential to endanger the "security of the state".
The list has 15 categories spanning everyone from football hooligans to battle-hardened militants returning from Iraq and Syria.
The suspects come into the spotlight if they are arrested or subject to a check after which they are immediately on the radar of the intelligence services.
"There are more than 10,000 people who are on the fiche S list," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said over the weekend.
Some of them are already known to security forces or sentenced for acts of terror, while the others are suspected of either having been radicalised or susceptible to it.
More and more cases of radicalised assailants have surfaced recently including the Al-Qaeda-linked gunman Mohammed Merah who killed seven people in and around the southern city of Toulouse in 2012.
The same was true of the attackers who targeted the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in February this year, killing 17 people.
And Yassin Salhi, who killed and decapitated his employer in Isere in southeastern France in June had been on the S list for two years but had never come to the attention of the police.
This can happen because the suspects are not automatically subject to surveillance.
"It's more or less an indicator, like a thermometer that one has to monitor and feed all the time for it to be efficient," a police officer said.
There is cross-border cooperation and intelligence-sharing on drawing up suspects to be added to the list.
Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani who in August attacked passengers on a train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris before being overpowered by three Americans, was on the list, thanks to warnings from Spanish and Belgian authorities who had alerted the French. Khazzani had lived both in Spain and Belgium.
Belgian police arrested at least one person after a four-hour siege at a house in the Brussels district of Molenbeek on Monday but failed to find a man wanted in connection with the Paris attacks.
Molenbeek mayor Francoise Schepmans told broadcaster RTBF that the operation was over with no one injured and that ‘arrests’ had been made. RTBF later said one person had been detained.
Police said the operation was related to the Paris attacks and the search for Saleh Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman based in the Belgian capital for whom an international arrest warrant has been issued.
A Reuters journalist at the scene said that three special force commandos wearing gas masks entered the sieged house via the roof. After some 10-15 minutes, they came out of the front door. Armoured vehicles were also in position.
The district of Molenbeek, home to many Muslim immigrants, has been at the centre of investigations of militant attacks in Paris over the weekend, after it emerged that two of the attackers had lived in the area.
Reuters
EARLIER REPORT
Key suspect Saleh Abdeslam targeted in Brussels raid
A major raid by Belgian police under way in Brussels on Monday is aimed at arresting Saleh Abdeslam, who was named by French police as a key suspect in the Paris attacks, prosecutors told AFP.
"That's correct," a spokesman for the prosecutor said when asked if the operation targeted Abdeslam, adding however that he was unable to confirm whether the suspect was actually in a house surrounded by police in the Molenbeek district of the Belgian capital.
One of his brothers, Brahim Abdeslam, has been identified among the suicide bombers involved in the Paris attacks.
Another brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, was released ‘without being charged’ by Belgian authorities on Monday along with four other suspects who were arrested, the prosecutor's spokesman said.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, is the subject of an international arrest warrant by French police who have described him as ‘dangerous.’ Belgian media described him as "public enemy number one".
UPDATE: French official identifies suspected mastermind of Paris attacks as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud. French official says suspected attacks mastermind linked to thwarted train and church attacks.
EARLIER REPORT
Cops let terrorist cross border after Paris attacks
Wanted terrorist Salah Abdeslam, who is now being hunted down in connection to the Paris attacks, was released by police just hours after the initial bombings and shootings on Friday, it has emerged.
Officials said the Belgian-born 26-year-old was pulled over in a rental car near the Belgian border and let go after being questioned.
Authorities had already identified the man as the person who rented a Volkswagen Polo found near the near the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 89 people were killed during a concert by US band Eagles of Death Metal.
Several AK47 rifles were found inside the car. He is described as dangerous and French police warned people not to approach him.
So far, investigators have found that two cars used in the operation were rented in Belgium, prosecutors said.
November 15, 2015
Two assailants who died in the Paris attacks were French citizens who had lived in Brussels, Belgian prosecutors said Sunday.
The Belgian authorities are holding seven people for questioning in connection with the attacks, and investigators have found that two cars used in the operation were rented in Belgium, they added.
"It appears that two French nationals, who lived in Brussels ..., were identified as among the attackers who died on the spot," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
"In addition, two cars registered in Belgium were found in Paris, one near the Bataclan and the other near Pere Lachaise," the statement said.
The Bataclan concert hall is where 89 people were killed, while Pere Lachaise, known for the cemetery where leading literary and other figures are buried, is nearby.
"The investigation shows that the two vehicles were rented at the beginning of the week in the Brussels area," the statement added.
It said that a total of seven people had been detained for questioning.
"Some of them may be put before an investigating magistrate in the next few hours," it added.
It was previously announced that police made several arrests when they carried out raids on Saturday in the poor immigrant Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek, which has been linked to past terror plots.
The prosecutors did not confirm whether all of the seven were arrested in Molenbeek.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said Saturday that the arrests in Molenbeek ‘can be seen in connection with a grey Polo car rented in Belgium’ found near the Bataclan.
Suspect held in Germany 'wanted to visit Paris'
A man arrested in Germany with explosives and Kalashnikovs in his car said he was on his way to Paris ‘to see the Eiffel Tower’ and refused to discuss the jihadist attacks, police said Sunday.
"We want to talk (about the Paris attacks) with him but he doesn't want to talk. Not about this subject in any case," a spokesman for police in southern Bavaria said.
Police arrested the 51-year-old man from Montenegro on November 5 during a routine check on a Bavaria motorway.
Police said in a statement that an address in Paris was found on a written note in the car as well as in his sat nav system, along with eight assault rifles, three handguns and explosives.
The suspect said he "wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and then return home" and had "no knowledge (of the presence) of arms and explosives" in his vehicle, a police statement said.
The navigation system of his VW Golf car showed he had travelled "from Montenegro to Croatia, Slovenia, Austria" before being stopped in Rosenheim, the statement added.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Saturday the authorities had yet to establish any link between the suspect and the gunmen in Paris.
But earlier Saturday Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer said that there was ‘reason to believe’ he was connected to the attackers.
France calls for EU security summit on Friday
France called on Sunday for an emergency summit of European Union justice and internal affairs ministers to take place on November 20 aimed at speeding up and implementing security measures that are already under discussion.
"Faced with atrocities and acts of terrorism that hit France on November 13 2015, our combat in the struggle against terrorism should, more than ever, be relentless and resolute," said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in a statement.
The statement covered potential changes to the Schengen open borders agreement covering some European countries and said the request had been made to European Commission Vice president Frans Timmermans and to Luxembourg's Security Minister Etienne Schneider. Luxembourg holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Up to 30 bodies of victims yet to be identified
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday that 103 bodies had been identified from Friday's attacks in Paris, with 20 to 30 more still awaiting identification.
"They will be (identified) in the coming hours," said Valls outside the Ecole Militaire where a centre has been set up for the victims' families.
"These are not anonymous victims. They are lives, young people, who have been targeted while they spent a quiet evening in a café, or at a concert," Valls told reporters.
"No psychologist, no volunteer, no doctor can console them," he said of the grieving families.
"But we must help them with the process, with identifications, to accompany them... through all the administrative tasks."
Holder of Syrian passport sought asylum in Serbia
The holder of a Syrian passport found near the body of one of the gunmen who died in Friday night's attacks in Paris passed through Serbia last month where he sought asylum, the Serbian Interior Ministry said.
"One of the suspected terrorists, AA, who is of interest to the French security agencies, was registered on the Presevo border crossing on October 7 this year, where he formally sought asylum," the ministry said in a statement.
The Presevo border crossing separates Serbia from Macedonia.
"Checks have confirmed that his details match those of the person who on October 3 was identified in Greece. There was no Interpol warrant issued against this person."
Greek authorities had said on Saturday the passport matched that used by a refugee who arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3.
Iraq says it shared information that France, US, Iran were targets
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari has said his country's intelligence services shared information they had which indicated that France, the United States and Iran were among countries being targeted for attack.
"Information has been obtained from Iraqi intelligence sources that the countries to be targeted soon, before it occurred, are Europe in general, specifically France, as well as America and Iran," Jaafari said from the sidelines of talks in Vienna on ending the war in Syria on Saturday.
He said the countries had been informed. A video of his comments was posted on his website.
Though he did not specify the threat was from Islamic State militants, who control large areas of Iraq and Syria, Jaafari said recent attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and France required a global response to the jihadist group.
Several Kalashnikovs found in abandoned car
Several AK47 rifles of the sort used during the attacks in Paris were found in the black Seat car abandoned in an eastern suburb of the capital, a judicial source said Sunday.
Witnesses have said the car, found in Montreuil, was used by attackers at multiple locations on Friday night.
Omar Ismail Mostefai... petty criminal to deadly killer
Omar Ismail Mostefai was known to police as nothing more than a petty criminal before he became the first gunman identified from Friday's attacks in Paris, which left at least 129 dead.
Identified by his finger, which was found among the rubble of the Bataclan concert hall, the 29-year-old was one of three men who blew himself up killing 89 people in the bloodiest scene of the carnage.
Born on November 21 1985, in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, Mostefai's criminal record shows eight convictions for petty crimes between 2004 and 2010, but no jail time.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Mostefai had been singled out as a high-priority target for radicalisation in 2010 but, before Friday, he had "never been implicated in a terrorist network or plot".
Investigators are now probing whether he took a trip to Syria last year, according to police sources.
Friday's attacks, which killed 129 people and wounded 352, including 99 critically, were the worst in Paris's history.
The killer's father and 34-year-old brother were placed in custody on Saturday evening and their homes were searched.
"It's a crazy thing, it's madness," his brother told AFP, his voice trembling, before he was taken into custody.
The brother, one of four boys in the family along with two sisters, turned himself in to police after learning Mostefai was involved in the attacks.
The last he knew, Mostefai had gone to Algeria with his family and his "little girl," he said, adding: "It's been a time since I have had any news."
"I called my mother, she didn't seem to know anything," he said Saturday.
A source close to the enquiry said Mostefai regularly attended a mosque in Luce, close to Chartres, to the southwest of Paris.
Belgian police arrested several suspects in Brussels on Saturday during raids connected to the Paris attacks, including one who was in the French capital at the time of the carnage, officials said.
The arrests were in the poor Brussels district of Molenbeek, which has been linked to several other past terror plots amid concerns Belgium has become a hotbed of European militancy.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said separately that the arrests in Molenbeek "can be seen in connection with a grey Polo car rented in Belgium" found near the Bataclan.
Footage on Belgian television showed plainclothes officers pointing automatic pistols at a man on his knees, while a uniformed police officer carrying a sub-machinegun warned onlookers to stay away.
"An old model Golf was stopped as it was driving. The police made the man get out and they shoved him in the back, made him kneel and then put a blindfold on him," a resident told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Three teams of gunmen wearing suicide vests
French police have identified three teams of gunmen wearing suicide vests who killed at least 129 people in Paris' worst ever attacks that were claimed by the Daesh (IS) group and prompted a global outpouring of solidarity with the victims.
A 29-year-old Frenchman was the first to be identified among the seven attackers, all of whom died in the assault, prosecutors said, while at least one man under investigation over the atrocities had registered as a Syrian refugee in Greece.
The discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one attacker has raised suspicions some of them might have entered Europe as part of an influx of people fleeing Syria's civil war.
Nov 14, 2015
FRENCHMAN IDENTIFIED AS POSSIBLE CONCERT HALL ATTACKER: POLICE SOURCES
At least 128 people were killed and scores injured, 80 critically, in attacks Friday on six sites across the French capital, ranging from a concert venue to a sports stadium.
Here is a timeline of the attacks, which have been claimed by the Daesh (IS) group:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
State of emergency
The toll
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
French Police are said to be in pursuit of a Citroën Berlingo after it forced its way through a toll on the A10 in the Ablis area of Yvelines in north-west France. The car reportedly contains four 'heavily armed men'.
The Eiffel Tower will be closed indefinitely following the wave of deadly attacks in Paris, the iconic landmark's operator said on Saturday.
The company decided to close the monument -- normally visited by up to 20,000 people a day -- after Friday's attacks which claimed at least 128 lives, a spokeswoman told AFP. It will remain closed "until further notice," she added.
British casualties - British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that "a number" of British casualties are expected from the Paris attacks.
German arrest - Bavaria's state premier Horst Seehofer said Saturday that there was "reason to believe" that a man arrested last week with several weapons in southern Germany was linked to attackers who killed more than 128 people in Paris.
"There is reason to believe that this is possibly linked" to the attacks, Seehofer told a party conference.
Police had confirmed the arrest on November 5 during a routine check on a motorway, saying "many machine guns, revolvers and explosives" were found in the suspect's vehicle.
Cordoned off - One of the policemen involved in storming the venue returned early on Saturday, saying what had happened had not yet sunk in for him.
"I went back home to reassure my children. Now I've just come back as a person" to try and comprehend the horror, he says, "to do sort of a personal debriefing. You simply cannot remain indifferent."
A security source says a Syrian passport as been found near the body of one of the attackers.
Gatwick evacuated: As nervousness spreads across Europe following the devastating attacks in Paris, London's Gatwick Airport's North Terminal is evacuated as a "precautionary measure". - AFP
German footballers: Germany's footballers spent the night at the Stade de France in northern Paris after a friendly match against France.Disneyland Paris has decided not to open its theme parks today.
"In light of the recent tragic events in France and in support of our community and the victims of these horrendous attacks, Disneyland Paris has decided not to open its theme parks on Saturday 14 November," says a statement on its website.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by these horrible events." - AFP
'Hateful attacks'
The head of Sunni Islam's leading seat of learning, Cairo's Al Azhar, condemns the "hateful" Paris attacks.
"We denounce this hateful incident," Ahmed Al Tayyeb tells a conference in comments broadcast by Egyptian state television. "The time has come for the world to unite to confront this monster." - AFP
Paris attacks toll rises to 128, around 180 injured, 80 critical, according to police sources.
EARLIER STORIES: 8 militants killed
A total of eight militants were killed, including seven by their suicide belts, during Friday's attacks in Paris that left at least 120 dead, a source close to the investigation said.
Four of the attackers were killed in the Bataclan concert hall, three by activating their suicide vests and one shot by police. Three more died near the national stadium and a fourth was killed in a street in eastern Paris.
Over 200 hurt
On top of at least 120 people killed in the wave of attacks across Paris on Friday, more than 200 were injured, including 80 seriously, a source close to the investigation said.
At least 120 killed: Emergency launched
Paris prosecutors are reporting that as many as 120 people were killed on Friday night following multiple explosions and shootings. It's the deadliest attack on France since WWII.
The coordinated assaults, which began after 9.15 pm local time, saw multiple explosions and shootings at six sites across the city at restaurants, soccer stadium and a concert hall.
At least 70 hostages were killed at the Bataclan theater, where the California-based ‘Eagles of Death Metal’ band were performing a sold-out concert. Gunfire could be heard from inside the theater late Friday. The hostage situation ended around 1 a.m. with three terrorists getting shot down by special forces.
According to the police chief, attackers at all six locations are believed to be dead.
The assaults took place in some of Paris's liveliest, hippest neighborhoods in the 10th and 11th districts on a warm and busy Friday evening. One of the main site of the assault, the Bataclan is located about two hundred meters from Charlie Hebdo's newsroom which was attacked by terrorists on Jan. 7 and killed 12 people. In the 10th district, a man armed with a kalashnikov stormed a restaurant and shot randomly at clients, according to BFMTV.
French terror analysts have noted the singularity of the attack in terms of its massive scope, as well as the presence of Kamikazes in Paris and the fact that they targeted random French people.
France president Francois Hollande, appearing visibly shocked during a live press conference, called it an "unprecedented terrorist attack ... a horror." He also launched a State of Emergency and urged that France's borders be shut down. He said France would wage a "merciless battle against terrorists. (...) They will be punished."
Hollande had been evacuated earlier Friday night from Stade de France, the country's national stadium, after three explosions rocked the football arena during a friendly match between France and Germany. The stadium reportedly has been put on lockdown and is being evacuated in sections.
Although the suspects have not yet been identified, witnesses inside the Bataclan reported that the shooters screamed "This is for Syria, this is for Syria" before gunning down patrons.
The locations of the November 13th Paris terrorists attacks with the Gare du Norde in the center for reference.
Local channel France 24 reports that at least six shootouts were perpetrated by gunmen across Paris.
President Barack Obama also condemned the attacks, which he called "heartbreaking," in a nationally television address from the White House.
"This isn't just an attack on France. ... It's an attack on all of humanity," he said.
France's Canal Plus reported that the attack outside of the Stade de France was executed by two suicide bombers and that the bombs were crudely built with nails.
Paris officials have told local citizens to stay indoors as the city remains on high alert.
Also Read: 10 horrific minutes…witnesses tell of 'bloodbath'
Targets range from a pizzeria to the Stade de France
The assailants struck at least six very different venues, ranging from the national sports stadium to a pizzeria. The overall toll was expected to rise.
Bataclan concert hall
People warm up under protective thermal blankets as they gather on a street near the Bataclan concert hall following fatal attacks in Paris, France, November 14, 2015. Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at locations around Paris on Friday evening, killing dozens of people in what a shaken French President described as an unprecedented terrorist attack (Reuters)
A full house of 1,500 people were packed into the popular venue in eastern Paris for a concert by the US band Eagles of Death Metal.
About an hour after the band took to the stage, the whole concert hall was turned into "a bloodbath" according to a French radio reporter at the scene.
Black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the hall and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers.
Fellow radio presenter Pierre Janaszak heard the first shots and thought it was part of the act.
"But we quickly understood. They were just firing into the crowd."
He said he heard an attacker say, "It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria."
Four assailants were killed after police stormed in -- three by activating their suicide vests and a fourth shot dead -- but not before they had mown down some 100 people.
Stade de France
Three loud explosions were heard outside France's national stadium during the first half of a friendly international football match between France and Germany.
At least five people died outside the glittering venue which staged the 1998 World Cup final with several others seriously hurt.
French special forces policemen stand next to a victim on the sidewalk outside a cafe at the Bataclan concert hall following fatal shootings in Paris, France, November 14, 2015 (Reuters)
One of the explosions was near a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium.
At least one of the two explosions in rue Jules-Rimet was a suicide bomb attack.
French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated.
The match was eventually completed and the stadium emptied in a relatively calm atmosphere.
Rue de Charonne
A little further east on Rue de Charonne 18 people were killed, with one witness saying a Japanese restaurant was the main target. "There was blood everywhere," the witness said.
Another man said he heard shots ring out, in sharp bursts, for two or three minutes. "I saw several bloody bodies on the ground. I don't know if they were dead," he said.
Rue Bichat
Pierre Montfort lives close to a Cambodian restaurant on Paris' Rue Bichat, a little further north, was the scene of another attack. "We heard the sound of guns, 30-second bursts. It was endless. We thought it was fireworks," he said. Florence said she arrived by scooter a minute or so after.
People are being evacuated on rue Oberkampf near the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris, early on November 14, 2015. At least 120 people were killed in a series of terror attacks in Paris on November 13 according to a provisional total, a source close to the investigation said. (AFP)
"It was surreal, everyone was on the ground. No one was moving inside the Petit Cambodge restaurant and everyone was on the ground in bar Carillon," she said. "It was very calm -- people didn't understand what was going on. A young girl was being carried in the arms of a young man. She seemed to be dead."
Rue de la Fontaine au Roi
A few hundred metres (yards) from the Bataclan, the terrace of the Casa Nostra pizzeria was targeted. Five people were killed by attackers wielding automatic rifles, according to witness Mathieu, 35.
People rest on a bench after being evacuated from the Bataclan theater after a shooting in Paris, Friday Nov. 13, 2015. French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced that he was closing the country's borders. (AP)
"There were at least five dead around me, others in the road, there was blood everywhere. I was very lucky."
Boulevard Voltaire
A judicial source said one of the attackers exploded his suicide vest on the Boulevard Voltaire, near the Bataclan. It is not yet known if there were any injuries from the explosion.
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