Videos have started to emerge from the dramatic police shootout with terror suspects in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Officials said the raids have seen a number of police injured and a police dog killed after a series of large explosions and gunfire broke out at around 4.30am local time.
Two suspected terrorists are thought to be dead while five more have been arrested.
One of those killed includes a female suicide bomber.
One man has been escorted from the building with pictures from the scene showing him being lead away by heavily armed police.
Supported by the French army, officers launched a massive operation understood to be aimed at apprehending the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The raid went on for some hours and, as a siege situation was established, neighbours and assembled journalists captured footage more resembling a warzone than the French capital.
Authorities believe they traced Abaaoud to the apartment in Saint-Denis along with up to five other heavily armed people.
At least seven explosions were heard at the scene of the stand-off.
Residents were evacuated from the building under siege, which is in rue du Cornillon, the heart of the historic multicultural area north of the city centre.
The site is about a mile from the Stade de France national stadium, where three suicide bombers blew themselves up on Friday during a football friendly with President Francois Hollande in attendance.
