Officers used grenades and sniper rifles during Wednesday’s firefight, where more than 5,000 rounds were fired. A woman, Hasna Aït Boulahcen, was also killed during the standoff, though police clarified on Saturday that she did not die by detonating an explosive vest, as they had initially believed.
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Fearing an imminent threat of a Paris-style attack, Belgium extended a maximum security alert in Brussels for a week, but said the metro system and schools could reopen on Wednesday.
One of the dead has been confirmed as Islamist militant Abaaoud.
Hailing a “crucial change”, Cazeneuve said the European Commission would present plans to introduce “obligatory checks at all external borders for all travellers”, including EU citizens, by the year’s end.
The apartment in Saint-Denis, France, where Abdelhamid Abaaoud was hiding.
The decision, to be implemented immediately but on a provisional basis until the European commission formally changes the rules, means all EU nationals entering the free passport zone can now be vetted for terrorism or criminal connections against Schengen-area and national databases.
Abaaoud was believed to be the mastermind of four out of six attacks thwarted since the spring by French authorities, including a recent attack on a high-speed train that was stopped by three American soldiers.
Local authorities in Sens, about 130 km southeast of Paris, imposed a curfew on Friday from 10 p.m.to 6 a.m.in one part of the town – the first curfew in France since a state of emergency was announced the day after the attacks.
Hundreds of thousands of people have reached Europe as Syrian refugees in recent months, including at least one person using a passport found at the scene of Friday’s attacks.
The Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group, operating in Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Another team blew themselves up outside the Stade de France where President Francois Hollande was watching a friendly match between France and Germany.
Firearms – to prevent trafficking of illegal firearms, through common marking of weapons and efforts to block smuggling from the Balkans.
“It’s possible we thought Mr. Mostefai had returned when he hadn’t”, one French official told the paper, “or that he did return but left again afterward”.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere echoed his French counterpart’s statements.
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“We hope that Europe, which has wasted too much time on a number of urgent issues, today takes the decisions that we must take”, Cazeneuve said, according to the AFP news agency.
