St-Denis raid: loud booms and gunfire shatter silence of suburban morning
4am
Five days after the murderous attacks in Paris, the city is asleep. But in St-Denis, a town in the northern suburbs, a major operation is underway in the dark. France’s rapid intervention brigade moves silently, closing in on two inconspicuous and down-at-heel side-street: rue du Corbillon and rue Fontaine.
The information is precise. It comes from telephone intercepts. The suspected “mastermind” of the Paris shootings, Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud, has been traced. Last seen in Raqqa, Syria, he is seemingly back in France, a mere 2km away from the Stade de France, the scene of three suicide bombings on Friday. Apparently with him is Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive terrorist whose brother Brahim blew himself up in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. And other unidentified suspects.
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The trail leads to 8 rue du Corbillon. The address is, improbably, a primary school, the Jules Guesdes elementary. The beige-painted modern building overlooks a playground; its entrance is a grand remnant from an older structure, with columns and a portico; the ground floor is home to classrooms and 326 pupils.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/st-denis-raid-paris-attack-loud-booms-gunfire-shatter-silence-suburban-morning?CMP=share_btn_tw
Pretty explicit report..........clears up some of the inconsistency in some reporting from earlier.