Third body found at Paris raid site as attacks death toll hits 130

A third body has been found in an apartment raided by police searching for suspects in last week’s Paris atrocity, as the French government confirmed the death toll in the attacks has risen to 130.

The prosecutors’ office said in a statement that the body found in a flat in Saint-Denis is that of a woman but her identity is unclear.

Authorities have identified one of the three killed in Wednesday’s raid in Saint-Denis as the suspected mastermind of last Friday’s massacres, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Prime minister Manuel Valls said yesterday that one more person had died as a result of the attacks in Paris, raising the total toll to 130.

He made the announcement in a speech to the Senate, which is expected to approve a three-month extension to France’s state of emergency. The count does not include any of the attackers who died.

The body of Belgian extremist Abaaoud, 27, was found in the building targeted on Wednesday and was identified based on skin samples, the prosecutor’s office said.

Abaaoud ended up near Paris after reportedly being in Syria but officials have not said how he managed to travel across so many borders to the French capital.

Authorities have not detailed his exact whereabouts or actions during the deadly attacks in Paris.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France did not know before last week’s deadly attacks that Abaaoud was in Europe, but said he was believed to be behind four of six attacks thwarted since spring by French authorities.

Police have said another woman who died in the police raid in Saint-Denis was Abaaoud’s cousin.

But reports last night suggested Hasna Aitboulahcen may not have detonated a suicide vest in the building after a brief conversation with police officers.

A French security official said Abaaoud was seen on a surveillance camera in the subway at around the time of the shootings and suicide bombings on 13 November.

In an unusual step, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and several of its member groups urged their imams to denounce the attacks in their sermons yesterday and distributed suggested texts.

Meanwhile, Russian and Syrian warplanes launched dozens of air strikes on Islamic State-held areas of eastern Syria, after the group’s fighters staged an assault on an air base near the city of Deir al-Zor, a monitoring group said.

In at least 50 bombing raids, towns across Deir al-Zor province, including near the Iraqi border, were hit and dozens of vehicles and fuel oil tankers were destroyed, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Eight civilians were killed in the bombardment, including three children, the Observatory said, describing the intensity of the strikes on the province as “unprecedented”.