Off-Duty French Police to Stay Armed in State of Emergency

French police officers will remain armed even when off-duty during the ongoing national state of emergency expected to be extended an additional three months on Thursday, a General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN) managing director said.

PARIS (Sputnik) – "Police officers on duty ensure security, but police in their place of residence [and] on their way may also participate in the fight against terrorism and the security of our country," Jean-Marc Falcone told RTL radio.

French President Francois Hollande imposed a state of emergency, the country’s first since 1961, in the wake of the November 13 series of coordinated terrorist attacks.

French legislation allows a period of 12 days for a state of emergency to remain in effect. Any extensions are subject to a parliament vote. Lawmakers in the lower house, the National Assembly, are expected to vote on extending the state of emergency on Thursday.

At least 129 people were killed and over 350 injured in suicide bombings and shootings at a football stadium, a concert hall and restaurants in the French capital.

Law enforcement officials and the French military killed a suspected gunman and arrested eight alleged accomplices in seven-hour overnight raids in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday. A female suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt, killing only herself, in a third-floor apartment in the densely populated suburb near the Stade de France, the location where two suicide bombers set off their devices last week.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged central planner of the attack, is thought to have been killed in the police raid. The November 13 massacres are the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II.