French prosecutor: Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks died in police raid

PARIS (Reuters) - The suspected mastermind of the attacks that killed 129 in Paris was among those killed in a police raid in a suburb of the French capital on Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement on Thursday.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant, who had boasted of mounting attacks in Europe for the Islamic State, was accused of orchestrating Friday's coordinated bombings and shootings.

Police originally thought he was in Syria, but their investigations led them to a house in the Paris suburb of St. Denis and heavily armed officers stormed the building before dawn Wednesday, triggering a massive firefight and multiple explosions.

'Abdel Hamid Abaaoud has just been formally identified, after comparing fingerprints, as having been killed during the (police) raid,” the statement said. 'It was the body we had discovered in the building, riddled with bullets.”

It is unclear at this stage if the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, who was found dead after a police raid, blew himself up or not, the Paris prosecutor's office said.