A woman wearing an explosive-packed vest blew herself up early Wednesday after more than 100 French police and army troops stormed an apartment in northern Paris, prompting a seven-hour siege with a heavy exchange of gunfire that killed two suspects, police said.

The young woman wearing the vest blew herself up after firing rounds at the police, authorities said. Seven suspects, including a woman, were arrested and several police were injured in the pre-dawn raid. Gunshots and explosions rang out from the historic heart of Paris’ Saint Denis neighborhood, a teeming quarter with a large immigrant population.

Police approached the apartment at 4:30 a.m., acting on information that another pending terror attack was in the works, said a French police official familiar with the investigation. The operation ended seven hours later, at 11:30 a.m. a government spokesman said.