The time is 4:30am and automatic weapon fire and explosions are ringing out during the night in Saint Denis in the North of Paris. France security forces, wearing ski masks blockaded roads in and out of the small French suburb and explosions and automatic weapons were heard.

No official word has been given as to the nature of the shooting, why it occurred or how many suspects may be involved.

Update:

Via Independent:

A woman in a suicide vest is thought to have blown herself up as police hunting the Paris terrorists laid siege to a flat where the mastermind of the attacks was believed to be hiding.

Following the terror attack in Paris last Friday, which left 129 dead and 57 people still in intensive care, here are the latest updates:

• Gunfire and loud explosions were heard as a French police launched an operation in the northern Paris suburb of St Denis in the early hours of Wednesday morning

• Several police officers are reported to have been injured

• At least one person is confirmed dead. There are reports of between one and two more deaths

• Five arrests confirmed – three men in the apartment under siege and another man and a woman nearby – their identities are not being released by police

• There are reports that Abdelhamid Abaaoud – the suspected mastermind behind the Paris attack and previously thought to have been fighting in Syria – may be one of the people arrested