Paris Attacks Ringleader 'Returned To Scene'
The man thought to have been the ringleader of the Paris terror attacks returned to the Bataclan concert hall while police were still there, the city's prosecutor has said.
Francois Molins said phone records showed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud went back to the theatre, where 89 people were shot dead on 13 November, as an operation to free hostages was ongoing.
Attacks also took place at the Stade de France and a series of bars, restaurants and cafes across the French capital as part of the co-ordinated massacre.
Mr Molins said Abaaoud, the Belgian suspected of being behind the attacks, had been traced to the metro after the attack at the Bataclan but had returned to the area shortly afterwards.
He added: "The geolocalisation of Abdelhamid Abaaoud's alleged phone between 22.28pm and 12.28am confirms a presence in the 12th, 11th, and 10th districts, and notably near the Bataclan concert hall. This allows us to think that Abaaoud returns to the crime scenes following the attacks on terraces of the cafes and restaurants of the 10th and 11th districts while (special police) were still taking action at the Bataclan."
Abaaoud was also thought to have been preparing with an accomplice for a suicide bombing mission at Paris's La Defense business district on 18 or 19 November, Mr Molins said.
Instead, the jihadist was killed during a police raid on the northern Paris apartment where he was staying in the early hours of 18 November.
His female cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, died of asphyxia apparently from the explosive vest detonated by a third person, who has not been identified, the prosecutor said.
Mr Molins was speaking at a press conference to update reporters on the investigation into the attacks, which killed 130 people. Two days before the attacks, one of the suspects Salah Abdeslam was filmed in a petrol station in Ressons with a man identified as Mohamed Abrini, born 27 December 1984.
A European and international arrest warrant has been issued against Abrini and authorities have warned that he is "dangerous" and "probably armed", adding that the public should not approach him.
:: Jawad Bendaoud, accused of housing the suspected ringleader Abaaoud, has been charged with terror-related offences.
Mr Molins said the 29-year-old "must have known he had assisted the terrorists".
He has been charged with criminal association and detention of incendiary or explosive substances linked to a terrorist enterprise.
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