Saint-Denis raid: Seven people released after arrests in Paris but man who lived in the flat still detained

Jawad Bendaoud, who claimed living in the flat raided by French forces, is still under police arrest

Forensic officers search for evidence following the raid on a building in Saint-Denis (Getty Images)

Seven of the eight people arrested on Wednesday following the police raid in Saint-Denis have been released.

The man who hosted the terrorists in his flat Rue du Corbillon, Jawad Bendaoud, is still under police arrest on suspicion of being linked to the Paris attacks.

A young woman, who had been arrested in a street near the raided flat along with Mr Bendaoud and “six people who were in the block or very close to it” have been released, said the French justice authorities.

Mr Bendaoud claimed to own the flat where Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks, stayed before and after the massacres.

The flat was raided by French police forces on Wednesday and three people were killed, including Abaaoud.

Bendaoud was arrested shortly after the raid and told French media he “didn’t know they were terrorists” and was only trying “to be helpful” when he was asked by a friend to rent out his flat to two people for a few nights.

“I told them there were no mattresses, they said it didn’t matter - they only wanted water and to be able to pray,” he said.

French media report he was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2008 for “lethal blows” and was released in 2013.

Under French terrorism law, he can be detained by police for up to six days without being charged.

French authorities are still looking for Salah Abdeslam, one of the gunmen in the shootout in the 10th and 11th arrondissement.