Some of the Paris attackers exploited Europe's refugee crisis to "slip in" to France unnoticed, the country's prime minister has said.

Manuel Valls said the passport-free Schengen zone is at risk if Europe fails to "take responsibility" over border controls.

The warning comes as EU justice and interior ministers meet in Brussels today where they are expected to strengthen checks on travellers at the borders of the 26-nation bloc.

Anne Cahill, European correspondent for Irish Examiner, told Newstalk Breakfast ministers will have tough talks ahead of them.

Authorities say the ringleader of Friday's bombings and shootings in the French capital - which killed 129 people - managed to enter the continent unhindered.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud had been linked to a series of extremist plots in France this year, including an attack by a gunman on a high-speed train which was thwarted by three Americans.

The 28-year-old was wanted on international warrants and had been sentenced in his absence in Belgium to 20 years in prison.

Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected gunmen in the attacks, is still being hunted by police.

Mr Valls said it remains unclear whether Abdeslam is in France or Belgium, or if there are any more cells directly linked to the Paris attackers still at large.

Police originally thought Abaaoud was in Syria, but he was among those killed when heavily armed police stormed an apartment complex in the northern Paris suburb of Saint Denis at dawn on Wednesday, triggering a massive firefight and explosions.

Mr Valls said some of the Paris attackers had taken advantage of the massive influx of refugees and migrants into Europe fleeing conflict.

"These individuals took advantage of the refugee crisis ... of the chaos, perhaps, for some of them to slip in" to France, he told French TV.

"Others were in Belgium already. And others, I must remind you, were in France."

Police sources said a tip-off from Moroccan intelligence had helped track Abaaoud to the apartment building where he died.

France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has called on Europe to "wake up" to the threat posed by Islamic State and take steps to ensure the safety of citizens.

"It is urgent that Europe wakes up, organises itself and defends itself against the terrorist threat," he said.

Another person killed in Wednesday's raid was a woman who blew herself up with an explosives vest.

She has been named as Abaaoud's cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen.

Police investigating the attacks raided a property northeast of Paris where Aitboulahcen had lived with her mother and siblings.

Prior to the raid, the mother described her daughter's radicalisation as "brainwashing".

Her brother described how she had suddenly become radicalised about six months ago and began wearing a full-faced veil.

Before that she had lived a secular life, drinking alcohol and rarely visiting a mosque.

He said she had left home three weeks ago, adding: "She was unstable, she created her own bubble. She wasn't looking to study religion, I have never even seen her open a Koran."

It has also emerged the 26-year-old had been under police surveillance because her name had been linked to a drug-trafficking case.

Her mother and brother have both been taken in by police for questioning.

Meanwhile American politicians have taken a major step towards blocking Syrian refugees from entering the country following the Paris attacks.