French parliament extends state of emergency after IS Paris attacks

The French parliament has voted to extend the state of emergency imposed after Friday's Paris attacks until the end of February. Police on Thursday were trying to find out what has happened to the alleged mastermind of the attacks after the police raid in Saint Denis that left at least two dead.

Reuters/Charles Platiau

MPs voted to extend the state of emergency, which gives the authorities extra powers on questions such as house arrest, for three months and the Senate will vote on the move on Friday.

During the debate Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that "chemical or biological weapons" might be used on French soil.

"No possibility can be excluded," he told the National Assembly.

The government on Saturday issued a decree allowing military pharmacies to give anti-bacteriological antidote to civilian emergency services.

With European Union interior ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday, Valls also called for the Passenger Name Record (PNR) scheme to monitor air passengers to be adopted as a matter of urgency.

France will set up a system for reeducation of radicalised young people, who would be referred by judges.

After Thursday's raid on a hideout in Saint Denis on the outskirts of Paris the fate of the alleged mastermind, Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was unknown, despite earlier reports that he had been killed.

Police confirmed that he was not among the eight people arrested and nor was Salah Abdeslam, suspected of taking part in the attacks along with his brother, Brahim, who blew himself up.

At least two people were killed - one of them a woman who detonated a suicide vest while a body riddled with bullets had yet to be identified.