The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks was among those killed in the St Denis flat siege, it has been confirmed.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who had boasted of mounting attacks in Europe for Islamic State, was accused of orchestrating Friday's bombings and shootings in the French capital, which killed 129 people.
Police originally thought he was in Syria but intelligence suggested he was hiding in an apartment complex in the suburb of St Denis.
Heavily-armed officers stormed the building before dawn, triggering a massive firefight and explosions.
In a statement, the prosecutor's office said Abaaoud's body was found in the complex "riddled with bullets".
The statement added the 28-year-old Belgian was identified using skin samples.
"Abdelhamid 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".
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also confirmed the news.
Another person was also killed in the raid, a woman who blew herself up with an explosives vest at the beginning. She has been named as Abaaoud's cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen.
The two bodies recovered from the rubble were badly mangled. Part of Aitboulahcen's spine had landed on a police car, complicating formal identification.
Five police officers suffered minor injuries in the siege and a seven-year-old police dog named Diesel was killed. Eight people were arrested,
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has welcomed the death of Abaaoud at the hands of security forces.
"We know that Abaaoud, the mastermind of these attacks - or one of the masterminds because we must be careful and we know the threats - is among the dead," he said.
Authorities are still searching for Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected gunmen in Friday's attacks, while police in Belgium have said they are hunting for a man known as Mohammed K, who they believe may have built suicide vests for the attackers.
Earlier Mr Valls warned of the risk of a chemical or biological weapons attack by associates of the Paris jihadis.
He was speaking as he presented a bill to extend the state of emergency declared after last Friday's massacre to three months.
"We must not rule anything out," he told the lower house of the French Parliament. "There is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons".
If approved, the Bill will also allow off-duty police officers to carry their weapons so they can respond more quickly to a terrorist attack.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said after the St Denis siege police had "neutralised" another terror cell, and that "everything led us to believe that, considering their armaments, the structured organisation and their determination, they were ready to act".
According to reports, the jihadis were set to carry out a second attack targeting Charles de Gaulle airport and the city's financial district La Defense.
The neighbourhood where the siege took place is less than a mile from the Stade de France, one of the targets of Friday's shootings and suicide bombings, along with a concert hall, bars and restaurants.
France has stepped up its airstrikes on Raqqa, Islamic State's stronghold in Syria, after the militant group said it was behind the rampage.
The French military says it has destroyed 35 IS targets in Syria since last Friday, all either command centres or training sites.
Newstalk.com's Shona Murray is in Paris, and spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime.
