Members of special French RAID forces with a police dog and French riot police secure the area during an operation in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 18, 2015. (Reuters)
A French police dog named Diesel was killed today during a shootout with terrorists holed up in a Paris apartment, while five officers were lightly wounded, police said.
"Diesel, a seven-year old Belgian Shepherd, female assault dog was killed by terrorists during the operation," according to the Twitter account of France's police.
"Assault and explosives detection dogs are vital in the operations of RAID", the specialist anti-terrorist unit in the French police which launched the dawn assault.
Two suspected terrorists were killed during the raid which saw automatic gunfire and explosions ring through the working class suburb since 4:00am.
One of them was a woman who detonated an explosives vest.
Seven other people were arrested.
The operation comes as part of a countrywide manhunt to find any links to the devastating string of attacks on Paris on Friday night that left 129 dead and hundreds injured.