Chemical attack warning as French police await siege IDs

France’s Prime Minister has warned of the risk of a chemical weapons attack as authorities try to identify the two people who died in the Paris apartment siege. Manuel Valls was speaking as he presented a bill to extend the state of emergency declared after last Friday’s attacks to three months. There are reports one of those killed in Wednesday’s raid on a flat in Saint Denis may have been Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of last week’s massacre.

We must not rule anything out. There is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons.

France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls

Investigators are also hoping to find out if Salah Abdeslam - one of the suspected gunmen - was in the building during the raid by 100 heavily armed police. In another development, a hunt is under way for a man known as Mohammed K, who police in Belgium think may have built suicide vests for the attackers. Two bodies were found in the rubble of the apartment complex after a blast thought to have been caused when a woman detonated a suicide vest. Explosions and gunfire rang out in Saint Denis as police entered the complex shortly after 4am local time. Nearby buildings were evacuated and the area around Place Jean Jaures was sealed off. Police fired about 5,000 rounds during an hour-long exchange of gunfire with the suspected terrorist cell inside the apartment. The raid was launched after a discarded mobile phone and tapped telephone conversations suggested Abaaoud may have been hiding there.

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