AFP released this animation explaining the events of the police assault in Saint-Denis earlier today. A rough translation of the voice over:
It is about 4.30 in the morning on the 18th of November when the police launches a vast operation against an appartment in the center of Saint-Denis, a suburb near Paris. The appartment is located near the Saint-Denis Basilique, about twenty minutes on foot from the Stade De France Stadium (one of the sites of the attacks on November 13th. The target of the police action is the presumed organiser of the killings, that left 129 people dead: the Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a very active member of the Islamic State. Men of RAID and BRI, elite police units are mobilised, supported by soldiers and a helicopter. A security perimeter is established, but soon inhabitants are hearing bursts of fire and loud explosions. After the assault starts, one of the people in the appartment takes her own life, presumably a female suicide bomber who blows herself up, the first one ever in France. One other person is killed during the operation, and eight people are arrested.
