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Paris: Gunfire shattered the pre-dawn quiet of Saint-Denis, an old suburb in Paris' north, two kilometres from the Stade de France football stadium which was attacked by three suicide bombers on Friday.
Local resident Dina told France 24 that she woke up at 4.30am to the sound of gunshots. She was one of many who were startled awake in fear and disbelief.
Police were conducting a morning raid – one of hundreds across France in the past three days.
Some have ended in arrests, weapon seizures or house arrests. However, this one was different.
Police were acting on fresh intelligence, including surveillance and witness testimonies, phone traces and material found on a mobile phone found in a rubbish bin near the Bataclan theatre.
The phone was believed to have been ditched by a terrorist just before Friday's terror attack.
The last text sent from the phone: "here we go – we're starting."
Using all this information, security services believed they had identified a safe house used by the attackers, including Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive terrorist who is the subject of an international manhunt in connection with the attacks. Salah's brother, Brahim, had blown himself up near a restaurant during the attack.
They also believed this safe house could contain a notorious Islamic State operative: 27-year-old Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, allegedly one of the planners behind the attacks, and many others for IS across Europe.
Recent information had placed him on French soil: a witness account security services received late on Monday, took "very seriously", checked and double-checked, Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins said.
A few hours before dawn, police approached 8 Rue de Corbillon, a three-storey apartment building overlooking a playground, with an elementary school on the ground floor.
France's elite BRI commando squad was part of the 110-person assault team. There was also a squad from RAID – Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion – a counter-terrorism unit that broke the January terrorist siege at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
In the January the RAID unit rescued 26 hostages from the Hyper Cacher supermarket, killing gunman Amedy Coulibaly who was holding them prisoner.
In April RAID gave a small group of Australian reporters, accompanying then prime minister Tony Abbott, a briefing on their tools and techniques.
The key to success in an anti-terrorism action was "speed, equipment and getting the right men on the scene", Mr Abbott was told.
RAID's equipment includes Tasers, rifles, thick shields, drones, cameras that can peer round corners and small explosive charges that "unlock" doors.
They made their way to a pair of apartments on the top floor.
But the apartment doors did not give way to the first round of explosives that had been placed to blow them out. Those inside had apparently somehow reinforced them.
This critically delayed the assault. It gave those inside time to prepare their defence.
A volley of Kalashnikov bullets met police. For more than a quarter of an hour they exchanged fire with those inside the apartment. There were explosions – possibly from grenades. Reinforcements arrived: a helicopter, and spotlights darted across the building.
It is believed that about this time police attack and explosive search dog Diesel was killed by the terrorists. He had been sent in to scout the scene.
Almost three-quarters of an hour after Wednesday's raid began, sporadic gunfire was still being exchanged. Police and army reinforcements were evacuating the area, taking locals down the road to the town hall. Ambulances and fire engines arrived, as did the first journalists.
"Saint-Denis is under siege," said mayor Didier Paillard, asking residents to stay home as Metro, bus and tram connections to the area were stopped.
After 6am there was a short lull in gunfire.
Police made three arrests, including one wounded person – Mr Molins said police were still trying to establish their identity.
Some time later a RAID unit confronted a young woman from the apartment, according to an eyewitness account on TV channel France 2, reported by the Guardian.
Some reports have it that she was Abaaoud's cousin.
According to one report she was shouting: "Help, help!"
The police told her to raise her hands and not make any sudden movements, or they would open fire.
"Then, nothing, then gunfire, and an explosion," the eyewitness said.
The woman blew herself up, probably with an explosive vest or belt like those used in the attacks on Friday.
Outside, police arrested more people, including the landlord of the apartment where the suspects were staying and his female companion. Before their arrests they had told media they didn't know the people in the flat, and it was "kind of a squat".
Police also arrested a wounded man on the street suspected of "having a role in the apartment".
Another series of explosions occurred about 7.30am – whether a suicide attack or a later assault is unclear.
Mr Molins said nearly 5000 rounds were fired by police during the raid. It was a difficult operation, involving snipers, grenades and assault rifles, and made even more difficult by the fact that the building was by now partially destroyed, with the third floor falling through to the floor below.
One body was discovered in the rubble, of a person who has not yet been identified – bringing the total deaths to "at least two", Mr Molins said.
However he could give neither a firm number, nor the identity of those killed.
By mid-morning, the assault was starting to wrap up. Police made a couple more arrests: two people they said they found trying to hide in the rubble of the wrecked apartment.
A total of eight people were in custody by lunchtime: seven men and one woman.
None of their identities have been officially confirmed at the time of writing.
However, Mr Molins said Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam were not among those apprehended.
