Europe's first woman suicide bomber was a party animal with a string of boyfriends who had shown no interest in religion, it emerged today.

Hasna Ait Boulahcen, 26, blew herself to pieces during the siege of Saint Denis after anti-terror police closed in on the safehouse where she was hiding with her cousin, the mastermind of the Paris attacks.

Ait Boulahcen, who blew herself up during the siege of Saint-Denis, is pictured taking a selfie with two others. Today her brother revealed how his sister had no interest in religion and never read the Koran. [Photo/Agencies]

Just a day after her death, family and acquaintances gave extraordinary accounts of a young woman with a 'bad reputation' who was known for her love of alcohol and cigarettes rather than devotion to Islam.

Her brother Youssouf Ait Boulahcen said that she had had no interest in religion, never read the Koran and had only started wearing a Muslim veil a month ago.

A photograph has also emerged of Ait Boulahcen posing for a selfie in the bath. Her face is covered in heavy make-up and she wears nothing but jewellery.

Ait Boulahcen blew herself up yesterday after anti-terror police tracked her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud to a rundown apartment in Saint Denis.

Two fingers: This was the first picture to emerge of Ait Boulahcen. Family and acquaintances have now given extraordinary accounts of a young woman with a 'bad reputation' known for her love of alcohol and cigarettes. [Photo/Agencies]

Witnesses described her screaming 'help me, help me' and 'I'm not his girlfriend' seconds before detonating the device.

Her head and spine were found in the street after being blasted through the window. French prosecutors confirmed today that Abaaoud, who was from Belgian, also died in the resultant gun battle.

He had been shot in the head and blown to pieces by grenades. Forensic experts had to identify him through saliva samples and pieces of skin.

Abaaoud was a committed jihadist who had been in Syria and was well-known to the European authorities.

However, his cousin appears to have only become radicalised in the last month after abandoning her former lifestyle to join ISIS.

In a statement, her brother Youssouf, said that he had never even see her open the Koran.

'She was living in her own world. She was not interested in studying her religion', he said. 'She was permanently on her phone, looking at Facebook or WhatsApp.

'I told her to stop all of this but she would not listen, she ignored my numerous attempts to give her advice telling me I was not her dad, or her husband, and so I should leave her alone.'

Youssouf described his relationship with his sister as complicated. 'She spent her time criticising everything,' he said. 'She refused to accept any advice, she didn't want to sort herself out.

Forensic investigators were today gathering evidence from the scene where Ait Boulahcen blew herself up. [Photo/Agencies]

'On the rare occasions that I spoke to her it was to tell her to behave better, to have a better attitude, to be more easy-going about her strict dress code.

'On Sunday at 7pm she called me because I had called her - and she sounded like she had given up on life.

Youssouf rushed over in his car to check on her but waited 15 minutes and got no answer.

'She called me and I put the phone down on her after telling her not to call me any more after the inconvenience she had caused me, getting me to come over for nothing.

'Finally on Wednesday morning I turned on the TV and I learned that she had killed herself, sacrificing the life that the Lord had given.

'She had been the victim of violence since she was very young - mistreated and rejected - she never received the love she needed.

'From the age of five she was taken into care, so she grew up with a foster family.

'She was happy and she flourished at that point in her adolescence. Then as she grew up she went off the rails. She became reckless, running away and choosing bad company.

Forensic experts continued to comb the scene of the flat raid today as it was confirmed Ait Boulahcen and her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud were both killed during a six-hour gun and grenade battle with police. [Photo/Agencies]

'I was never very close to her because we lived apart but during the opportunities I had to talk to her she was full of enthusiasm, although her instability always dragged her down, she was not grounded in her. She went from one life project to another, without question.'

Ait Boulahcen's family arrived in France in 1973 and settled in Paris, where she was born in 1989 in Clichy-la-Garenne, a suburb close to Wednesday's gun siege.

Her parents had separated when she was young and she had been brought up by foster families.   Her mother, whose first name is not known, lives in a tower block in Aulnay Sous Bois, a suburb 20 minutes outside of Paris.

It is understood that although Ait Boulahcen visited often, she did not live there permanently.

Friends said she remained 'close' to her father and would regularly visit his home in Creutzwald, Moselle. She lived with him for two months.

Local resident Amin Abou, 26, described her as 'a party animal who loved clubbing'.

'I would see her in this club in Germany which is only ten minutes away but where we go out because its much cheaper for alcohol.

Killed: Anti-terror police shot dead Paris massacre mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud in the Saint-Denis siege. [Photo/Agencies]

'She came here two or three years ago for two months. She didn’t work or go to university. I don’t think she even finished school. She loved partying and going to clubs. She drank alcohol and smoked and went around with lots of different guys. She had a bad reputation. She had lots of boyfriends, but nothing serious.

'She had no real friends, just people to hang out with. I think she had a lot of personal issues, with her family. She didn’t live with her mum she grew up in children’s homes. She has a brother who is mentally disabled and used to live in a home in Marseilles.

'She grew up in San Dennis a very bad area. And when you don’t have family-it’s easier to get into bad things.'

Another friend Mattius Jacques, 24, said: ‘She was normal she wore Western clothes, she never wore hijab. She didn’t go to mosque or pray. She never spoke about news or Palestine or anything.

'She wasn’t religious at all. She was like you and me, she went out, she lived a free life, always out partying.

'Her dad didn’t mind, he's cool. He plays guitar. Her father worked in car factory but is now retired. He goes to mosque often but he’s not strict. He goes on holiday to Morocco often because he lives alone.'

Raid: Eight people were arrested in yesterday's raid, including five inside the flat and three more nearby. [Photo/Agencies]

Friends also described her as a fun-loving party girl who liked to drink alcohol and was nicknamed 'the cowgirl' due to her love of wearing big cowboy hats.

Neighbours at the building where Ait Boulahcen's family live, in a run-down suburb of Paris, said that she had been there three weeks ago.

Elite French firearms teams fought a ferocious seven-hour battle with terror suspects in a cramped apartment block. They stormed the flat in Saint-Denis following intelligence that it was being used as a hideout by the masterminds behind the Paris massacres and that the fanatics inside were plotting another atrocity. Chris Greenwood, Emily Kent Smith and Josh White detail how the bloody drama unfolded:

[Photo/Agencies]

04.00: Police stream into Saint-Denis where they believe terror mastermind Abdel Hamid Abaaoud is holed up. They were led there by monitoring Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a French-born woman cousin of Abaaoud. They also believe that on-the-run terrorist Salah Abdeslam and a ninth attacker are among five fanatics present.

04.15: Hundreds of police marksmen, supported by military units, surround an apartment block at 8, Rue du Corbillon.

04.25: Officers from counter-terrorist unit RAID storm the building. Bullets ricochet off surrounding properties as they are met with a hail of gunfire. An explosion rocks the neighbourhood. Several officers are wounded.

Nabil Guerram, 36, who lives nearby, says: 'I was woken with a start at 4.20am by the sound of extremely heavy gunfire. My children were crying. There was non-stop fire for 20 to 25 minutes, then calm, then it started up again for a very long time.'

05.00: Police dog Diesel is killed after she is sent in to check for suspects. A witness says she was 'blown to pieces' in a hail of bullets.

[Photo/Agencies]

A woman who lives on the floor below hides in her bathroom but there are so many explosions she fears the ceiling is going to collapse. She said she heard gunfire, screaming, and people shouting 'shoot, shoot'. She said she ran away clutching her baby.

05.30: A helicopter arrives overhead and 25 minutes later a motorcade carrying dozens of French soldiers, followed by ambulances and fire engines are seen racing towards the flat. Surrounding roads are sealed off.

Neighbour Caroline Chomienne says she was woken by shooting, adding: 'The firing got louder and it was still going on after an hour. There was a firefight. There was shooting everywhere, but also bomb explosions.'

05.45: Residents run for their lives. Omar Dati, a 17-year-old student, said: 'It was like a warzone. We didn't know where to run.'

06.27: Sporadic gunfire continues to be heard, and terrified residents are warned to stay indoors. Schools remain closed and public transport is shut down.

07.00: Jawad Ben Dow, the apartment's landlord, tells how he let 'two men from Belgium' use it for a few days as a favour, saying: 'A friend asked me to put up two of his friends for a few days. I said there was no mattress.

'They told me, 'It's not a problem'.' They just wanted water and to pray. I was asked to do a favour, I did a favour. I didn't know they were terrorists.'

07.30: Siege enters its third hour and seven blasts rock Saint-Denis. Visibly nervous police officers reveal several colleagues have been injured in the close-quarters fighting.

[Photo/Agencies]

07.45: Up to 20 people, including children, are evacuated from the apartment block.

07.50: One man said he thought he would die when the shooting started and hid under his bed with his young son. 'I was afraid,' he said. 'My son heard and he was crying a lot. I tried to calm him down but he was crying. The police arrived and they said, 'Get out quick! This building is going to blow up'.'

08.00: Police block roads leading to Saint-Denis, shining green lasers at anyone to stop them coming too close.

08.30: Police confirm that a man has also been killed, believed to have been shot by one of their snipers. It is not known if Abaaoud is dead or alive. Two further police officers are injured. Explosives used by police cause an entire floor to collapse within the building.

09.00: A woman – believed to be Ait Boulahcen – detonates a suicide belt as she pretends to give herself up. Witness Christian, 20, said the street was showered in body parts after a deafening explosion at a window.

[Photo/Agencies]

He said: 'I heard a woman shouting 'Help, help, help me!' The police asked her to identify herself and to show herself. She showed her hands but she didn't reveal her face. They shouted at her, 'Keep your hands in the air!' They told her, 'We're going to shoot'. The shooting resumed. Suddenly there was an enormous explosion. It was probably the woman who blew herself up.'

09.00: Prosecutors announce three arrests. A man and a woman were also arrested nearby.

09.30: Police believe one last suspect remains in the apartment.

10.34: A man, naked from the waist down, and wearing a bloodied T-shirt is dragged from the building. No gunfire had been heard for two hours.

11.10: Manhunt for at least one suspect continues, as French police confirm another arrest, taking total to eight.

11.25: Further explosions as police use flash bang grenades to distract anyone left inside the apartment.

11.43: After a cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace, the government declares the seven-hour operation at an end.

13.00: Body parts are found amid the rubble outside the building which will be subjected to DNA analysis to see if they are Abaaoud.Photographs emerge showing the force of the explosions blew window frames clean out of the walls. Sources later claim Abaaoud was killed in the battle'.

14.25: A resident, who hid with her young son, said: 'The helicopter lit up my living room. I had to talk to someone... I came out when they said it was over.'

They said she had a bubbly personality, adding that she was 'outgoing, a bit clueless'. They were shocked to see her face appear on the news.

One neighbour, Hassane, described her as a 'Tom boy' and said she always dressed in jeans, trainers and a black cap until around eight months ago when she started wearing a niqab.

He said: 'She wasn't scared of anyone. She was like a little soldier. She was very lively, very dynamic.'

He said: 'She didn't have a niqab [headscarf] before. She was always in jeans and trainers. She was a very well-spoken girl. She was very respectful.'

The retired 62-year-old said that Ait Boulahcen was always very helpful and had once carried his heavy shopping for him.

He said Ait Boulahcen's mother had been comforted by the caretaker in the building and had spent last night crying.

He added: 'I can't believe she's part of this sect. When I heard it I felt sick. She was like all young girls - it was who she was hanging out with'.

'We have been tainted by these people that know nothing about Islam.' Another said: 'She did not look like a suicide bomber and she drank alcohol.'

Boulahcen studied at Paul Verlaine University in Metz. She was registered as a director of building company, Beko Construction, in Epinay sur Seine, three miles from yesterday's raid. The company was liquidated last year.

Her death in the Saint Denis siege was instant. Jean-Michel Fauvergue, 56, the French anti terror commander who led the raid described how he saw her head fly through the window. Her spine landed on a police car. 

'That's when we saw a human body, a woman's head, fly through the window and land on the pavement, on the other side of the street,' Fauvergue said.

'A suicide bomber had just exploded. The blast was so devastating that a supporting wall moved.'

Police made a number of arrests during the raid. A police dog was killed.    

PARIS MASSACRE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE DEADLY ATTACKS

At least 129 people are dead, and another 352 injured, after three teams of jihadis struck the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall

Timeline of events: Eight terrorists carried out the devastating attacks on Friday night, leaving 129 people dead and another 352 injured. [Photo/Agencies]

FIRST TWO ATTACKS: STADE DE FRANCE

The attacks began at 9.20pm at the Stade de France where the French football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly.

The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium.

Ahmed Almohammad, 25, from Syria approached the stadium with a match ticket. He was turned away from Gate D after being frisked by a security guard.

He backed away from the gate and detonated his vest, killing one other person. A passport was found near his body.

A second suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, 20, blew himself up near Gate H at 9.30pm. No one else was reported killed. Hadfi is said to have fought with ISIS in Syria.

THIRD ATTACK: LE PETIT CAMBODGE AND LE CARILLON BAR

At 9.25pm a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris, killing 15. The gunmen were using Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles.

FOURTH ATTACK: LA CASA NOSTRA PIZZERIA AND LA BELLE EQUIPE BAR

The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at least five people.

From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east – apparently past the area of the Bataclan concert venue – to launch another attack, this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 9.36pm The attackers then drove off.

FIFTH ATTACK: CAFÉ 'COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE'

At 9.40pm, Ibrahim Abdeslam, also known as Brahim, 31, set off a suicide vest inside cafe 'Comptoir Voltaire' on the Boulevard Voltaire and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the attack, which was found later abandoned with three assault rifles, along with five full magazines. The killers had emptied 11 magazines, firing an estimated 330 rounds.

SIXTH ATTACK: BATACLAN MUSIC HALL

At 9.40pm, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman) armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their bomb.

SEVENTH ATTACK: NEAR STADE DE FRANCE

At around 10.15pm a third blast took place near the Stade de France, this time by a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to flee the stadium following the first two explosions. The attacker who detonated his suicide vest was identified as a 20-year-old French man living in Belgium.

Thousands lined the streets of Paris on Monday for a minute's silence to remember those killed in a wave of attacks on the city on Friday. [Photo/Agencies]

AFTERMATH:

Saturday

• On Saturday morning, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks across Paris, saying 'eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles' conducted a 'blessed attack on... Crusader France'.

• On Saturday morning, the world's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam is stopped by French police along with two other men as he approached the Belgian border. He is released after he shows his ID and returns to the Jihadi hotspot of Molenbeek in Brussels where he vanishes.

• French and Belgian police continue to hunt for three suspected gunmen on the run, including Abdeslam, and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests. An international arrest warrant is issued for Abdeslam, 26.

Sunday

• One of the Stade de France suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece on October 3. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.

• However, the French minister of justice Christiane Taubira said on Sunday that the passport under the name Ahmed Almohammad was a fake.

• Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris was also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber. The petty criminal and father-of-one was known to police as a radical and had travelled to Algeria and Syria. He was identified by the fingerprint on a severed digit found after he detonated his suicide belt.

• Mostefai is believed to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent claimed to have regularly preached at his mosque in South West France.

• The black Seat Leon used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with three AK-47s and 16 magazines - 11 of them empty.

• Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a 'den of terrorists'.

• Five of those arrested, including the brother of Salah and Ibrahim Abdeslam, Mohamed, have been released without charge.

• Iraqi spies warned the West of an ISIS suicide bomber threat the day before the Paris atrocities, it was revealed on Sunday, as more details of major intelligence failures began to emerge. The US-led coalition in Syria was apparently told by Iraqi security sources that 24 extremists were involved in the terror operation planned in the ISIS capital Raqqa and it would involve 19 attackers including five others including bombmakers and planners. No detail was given of when or where an attack might take place.

• It has also emerged that Turkey's authorities foiled a plot to stage a 'Jihadi John revenge attack' in Istanbul - involving a high-profile British jihadist - on the same day as the deadly massacre in Paris.

• From as far back as August, France's authorities possessed information that militants were said to be planning attacks on French concert halls after a tip-off was received from a 30-year-old man who was detained on his way back from Syria.

• It emerged on Sunday night that police found Abdeslam near the Belgian border early Saturday but let him go after he showed them his ID card. Two other men were also in the car.

• At the time, officers in Paris knew that Abdeslam had rented the car used by the killers which had been abandoned near the theatre but the information had not been transmitted to those responsible for conducting the border checks.

• On Sunday evening the French defence ministry announced that the country's warplanes had bombed Islamic State's stronghold in Syria's Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp. Ten fighter jets were involved, dropping 20 bombs.

Monday

• French and Belgian police conducted 168 pre-dawn anti-terror raids on Monday, including a botched attempt to capture Abdeslam, who is still on the run. The raids took place at addresses in Brussels, Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Calais and two suburbs of Paris. A rocket launcher, flak jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among the cache of weapons seized in Lyon overnight.

• French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 104 people had been placed under house arrest, while 23 suspects were detained for questioning.

• The mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks is named as one of ISIS' top executioners, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, who even recruited his 13-year-old brother to fight with him in Syria.

• ISIS issue a chilling new video warning that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria will suffer the same fate as Paris and claimed they will attack Washington D.C. next.

• Thousands line the streets of Paris for a minute's silence to remember those killed in the wave of attacks on the city.

Tuesday

• French police discover a safe house used by the terror gang in the Bobigny suburb of Paris rented three days before the attack.

• The Royal Air Force has stuck ISIS targets in northern Iraq as the French continue their air strikes against the Jihadi stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.

• Two of the seven people detained in Belgium on Sunday are charged with unspecified terrorist offences. Moroccan-born Mohammed Amri, 27, and fellow Belgian Hamza Attouh, 21, are accused of picking up suspected gunman Salah Abdeslam at his request and driving him from the French capital to Brussels early on Saturday.

Wednesday

• Elite French firearms teams descend on a Saint-Denis flat in a pre-dawn raid which begins at 4am.

• They believe Abdel Hamid Abaaoud is holed up in the safe house, having been led there by monitoring Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a French-born woman cousin of Abaaoud. They also believe that on-the-run terrorist Salah Abdeslam and a ninth attacker are among five fanatics present.

• Hundreds of police marksmen, supported by military units, surround an apartment block at 8, Rue du Corbillon, and a ferocious seven-hour battle breaks out with the terrorists.

• Ait Bboulahcen detonates a suicide belt as she pretends to give herself up, screaming 'Help me, help me!' at police. In doing so, she becomes Europe's first woman suicide bomber. Her head and spine were found in the street after being blasted through a window.

• A police dog named Diesel is killed in the blast.

• Another terrorist, later identified to be Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is shot in the head by a police sniper and then blown to pieces by grenades.

• The siege ends after six hours with five people taken alive from the flat and arrested, two terrorists dead and five police officers suffering minor injuries. Three more people are arrested nearby, bringing the total number to eight.

• French prosecutor Francois Molins reveals that neither Abaaoud nor Salah Abdeslam, who has been on the run since Friday's attacks, were among the suspects arrested.

• Police issue an international alert for a 19-year-old man, Mohamed Khoualed, who is suspected of making the suicide bombs used in the Paris attacks.

Thursday

• Terrifying video footage of a sustained attack on a restaurant during the Paris Massacre is revealed by the Daily Mail. The exclusive images show the incredible luck of a young woman who would have died had the terrorist's assault rifle not misfired as he held the weapon over her head, giving her a chance to run away. The gunman responsible for the attack on the restaurant, which is not named for security reasons, is believed to be 26-year-old Belgian born Salah Abdeslam. He remains at large.

• French prosecutors confirm that Abaaoud is one of the terrorists who was killed in the raid. His body was so unrecognisable it took more than 24 hours for forensic tests to confirm he was dead using DNA from his saliva.

• His cousin Hasna Ait Bboulahcen is named as the woman who blew herself up.

• The announcement followed a warning by France’s prime minister that ISIS could unleash a chemical attack on the country. Manuel Valls said militant jihadists linked to the terrorist cell that carried out the Paris attacks possessed the capability to strike with chemical and biological weapons.

• U.S. security officials also report that they have found proof that ISIS is developing bioweapons with the help of Syrian and Iraqi scientists in the Middle-East.

• A bill to extend France's state of emergency is passed by the lower house of parliament.

• ISIS suffers a third day of heavy losses as Russia continues its bombing blitz against the terror group. The country's jets flew more than 100 combat sorties on Thursday, following 126 the day before, after President Vladimir Putin ordered the military to escalate their campaign in Syria.

• Suspected bomb-maker Mohamed Khoualed turns himself in to police in the French city of Lille.