French prosecutor: It will take 'longer than expected' to determine who died in St. Denis raid

The damaged apartment building in St. Denis. — (Image credit: Pierre Suu/Getty Images)

In France, forensic teams are rushing to identify the bodies of at least two people who were killed during a raid early Wednesday in the Paris suburb of St. Denis.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, named as the ringleader of the attacks in Paris last Friday that killed 129 people, was the target of the operation. A woman believed to be his cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, blew herself up with a suicide belt several hours after the raid started, destroying the apartment and mangling the bodies, The Guardian reports.

The Washington Post says it was told by two European officials that the dead man was Abaaoud, but Paris prosecutor Francois Molins announced because of the damage to the apartment and bodies, "I am not able to give you a precise number and identity of those killed. There are at least two dead and verifications will likely take longer than expected." If Abaaoud was killed Wednesday, it's unknown if he was shot by police, hit with a grenade, or died when the explosive belt was detonated.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.