Two people have been killed - includng a female suicide bomber - and five arrested in a police raid targeting the suspected orchestrator of last week's Paris attacks.

The Paris prosecutor's office said scores of armed officers arrested three people in an apartment in the north of the city and another man and woman were detained nearby.

Two people were killed in the stand-off in the suburb of Saint-Denis, including a female suicide bomber who blew herself up with a suicide vest, the prosecutor said.

Officials said four police officers were injured as police laid siege to a flat, but no hostages were being held.

It came as a massive police operation targeted Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of last week's terror attacks that killed at least 129 people.

Authorities believe they traced Abaaoud to an apartment in Saint-Denis along with up to five other heavily armed people.

Repeated gunfire and explosions were heard from the scene, close to the Stade de France national stadium, where three suicide bombers blew themselves up during Friday night's atrocities.

The woman wearing the suicide vest detonated the explosives as scores of officers raided the property, officials said.

A police official said one person was still holed up in the besieged apartment.

Investigators have identified 27-year-old Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of Friday's attacks in Paris.

A US official said Abaaoud was a key figure in an Islamic State external operations cell that US intelligence agencies have been tracking for months.

Residents said an explosion shook the neighbourhood at about 4am local time.

''Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire,'' said Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives in the neighbourhood.

Another witness, Amine Guizani, said he heard the sound of grenades and automatic gunfire.

''They were shooting for an hour. Non-stop. There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again,'' Mr Guizani said.

Saint-Denis mayor Didier Paillard said public transport was suspended and schools in the centre of town would not open on Wednesday.

Seven attackers died in Friday's gun-and-bomb rampage through Paris. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the carnage.

Police had said before the raids that they were hunting for two fugitives suspected of taking part as well as any accomplices. That would bring the number of attackers to at least nine.

French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium.