Police fired nearly 5,000 rounds during the raid, and French soldiers were reported to have used high-powered munitions on the apartment building, located on rue du Corbillon in Saint-Denis.

Abaaoud, a woman named Hasna Aït Boulahcen, and Chakib Akrouh, reportedly a perpetrator in the Paris attacks and suicide bomber in Saint-Denis, were killed, and five people were arrested.

[5][6] In the early morning of 18 November 2015, French police, including Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence (RAID), backed up by military units, launched an offensive in Saint-Denis against a building presumed to be the location of alleged Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

The target was a building at 8 rue du Corbillon, less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the Stade de France where three suicide bombings took place on 13 November.

They were aware that Hasna Aït Boulahcen, also of Moroccan origin and well-known to them as a suspect in a drug ring investigation during which her telephone was tapped, was an associate.

[8] At 4:20 am the next morning, police launched the full-on assault of a second-story apartment in that Saint-Denis building, believing that Abaaoud was hiding there with at least five accomplices.

Explosives laid by police at the entrance were ineffective as the door was armoured, allowing the terrorists inside time to arm themselves and respond.

Deputy Mayor of Saint-Denis Stéphane Peu warned residents to stay indoors and that the explosions were a military operation.

[13] According to some reports, police located Abaaoud by tracking Aït Boulahcen's mobile phone once they determined through intelligence that the former was still in France.

On 20 November, however, the Paris prosecutor announced that the suicide bomber was an unidentified man, based on forensic examination of the remains.