Police say raid underway in Paris suburb as witnesses report gunfire

Police say raid underway in Paris suburb as witnesses report gunfire

Witnesses have reported gunfire amid a police raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as authorities hunt for two suspects from Friday's deadly terrorist attacks who are believed to be at large.

Police blocked off roads early Wednesday in Saint-Denis, which is home to the Stade de France sports stadium where three suicide bombings took place Friday.

CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that police officers have been wounded by gunfire during a raid seeking one of the suspects in the wave of violence across Paris, which killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

French police wouldn't comment on whether any officers had been shot in the Saint-Denis operation.

BFMTV reported that the police raid was linked to the hunt for the so-called "ninth suspect," who may appear in a video recorded by a witness to the attacks.

Police have been analyzing the video, which shows two gunmen inside a black car linked to the attacks and perhaps a third individual driving the car, French media reported.

Seven of the attackers were killed during the wave of violence Friday night, and an international arrest warrant is already out for one suspect, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman. The identity of the possible ninth suspect is unknow

Brother urges suspect to surrender

Abdeslam's older brother has urged the suspect, who was last seen driving toward the Belgian border hours after the attacks, to turn himself over to authorities.

"I would tell him to surrender. That's the best solution," Mohamed Abdeslam told CNN's Erin Burnett on Tuesday. "But of course, if he has something to do with it, he must accept responsibility."

In their push to unravel the attack plot and the suspected network behind it, counterterrorism and intelligence officials say investigators have uncovered a clue that could be a big break: cell phones believed to belong to the attackers.

According to the officials, one of the phones contained a message, sent sometime before the attacks began, to the effect of: OK, we're ready.

"It points to a sort of organization," CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said, "an attempt to try to synchronize what was going down."

But cracking into their communication won't be easy.

Investigators have found encrypted apps on the phones, which appear to have left no trace of messages or any indication of who would have been receiving them, according to officials briefed on the French investigation.