The Paris prosecutor says that the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid.

In a statement Thursday, the prosecutor's office said that Abaaoud's body was found in an apartment building targeted in the raid in Saint-Denis north of Paris Wednesday. It said he was identified based on skin samples.

Also, three police officials say a woman killed during a raid on an apartment in suburban Paris was the cousin of Abaaoud.

One official says Hasna Aitboulahcen is believed to have detonated a suicide vest after a brief exchange with police officers.

According to the official, one of the officers asked: "Where is your boyfriend?" and she responded angrily: "He's not my boyfriend!" Then there was an explosion.

The bodies recovered in the raid were badly mangled, with a part of the woman's spine landing on a police car, complicating formal identification.

The officials say her exact relationship with the suspected mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has not been confirmed. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to divulge details of the investigation.

Police launched the operation after receiving information from tapped phone calls, surveillance and tipoffs suggesting that Abaaoud was holed up there.