Anti-terror police swoop on Paris suburb flat amid gun battle

Police anti-terrorist officers are raiding an apartment in a Paris suburb today where several men suspected of Friday's deadly attacks are surrounded.

The Paris police department said officers exchanged gunfire with the suspects in Saint Denis and several police were injured.

Police reinforcements were arriving at the scene just north of the capital during the massive operation linked to last Friday's attacks which killed 129 people.

Swat teams launched a pre-dawn raid in the Saint Denis area and the deputy mayor told French television it was not a "new attack".

Reports suggested several suspects were hiding in an apartment building and police have blocked off the area around Place Jean Jaures.

Authorities are searching for two extremists suspected of taking part in last Friday's attacks.

News of a second unidentified terrorist thought to be directly involved in the Paris atrocity emerged after CCTV indicated there were three extremists involved in the attack on a bar in the city.

It would take the total number of attackers to nine, with seven dead and the eighth surviving gunman, Salah Abdeslam, the subject of an international manhunt.