Paris attack: two die in hunt for ‘mastermind’ Abaaoudp

A female terrorist wearing a suicide vest has blown herself up and another jihadi was killed by a grenade during a six-hour siege on a flat where police believe the mastermind behind the Paris massacres was hiding with six other ISIS terrorists.

The stand-off between 110 armed officers and the terror cell ended as a bloodied and half-naked suspect was dragged out of an apartment block in Saint-Denis - close to the Stade de France.

The gunfight started at 4.25am when SWAT teams and Special Forces surrounded the building believing it contained Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, the architect of the plots that killed 129 people on Friday. The French authorities will not say if he was there or if he is dead or alive.

A woman 'with long blonde hair' who may be Abaaoud's jihadi bride or cousin is said to have fired her AK-47 at police before blowing herself up as an assault squad stormed their hideout. As she tried to murder the police another terror suspect was killed by a grenade blast.

Police said that five people in the flat and apartment block were taken alive and arrested while two others including the flat's owner were held 'nearby'.

At least five police were injured in the ferocious gunfight including one shot in the foot seen being carried from the scene. A seven-year-old sniffer dog called Diesel sent into the block to look for booby traps was blown up by the female suicide bomber.

Security services hunting for Abaaoud had been watching flats and tapping phones in Saint-Denis before they swooped this morning believing the world's most wanted man and other terrorists were inside. Police also feared the group were about to attack Paris' business district, La Defense.

Witnesses told MailOnline their street was 'turned into a warzone' after long periods of intense machine gun fire and at least seven large explosions, caused by the suicide bomber and hand grenades. There were no hostages involved.