Diesel named as police dog killed in Saint Denis raids hunting for Paris attackers

At least five officers suffered minor injuries in the raid

Police named the dog killed in Wednesday's raid as Diesel (Police Nationale)

French officials have named a police dog which was killed during a major counter-terror operation in the northern Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis.

Police targeting the suspected mastermind of the Paris shootings, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, raided a number of apartments in Saint-Denis in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

At least five officers suffered minor injuries in the raid, some after a woman at the scene detonated a suicide vest full of explosives.

Around seven explosions and sustained gunfire were heard by neighbours and officers throughout the morning, during which two terror suspects were killed and around seven arrests made.

Police officials told reporters that an assault and explosive search dog was killed during the operation.

The official profile for Police Nationale later tweeted that Diesel, a seven-year-old Belgian Malinois, “was killed by terrorists in the current operation in Saint-Denis”.

With solid information about the raid still scarce and a large area still cordoned off, the tweet was shared thousands of times in a matter of minutes.