The explosion on Wednesday, potentially caused by a gas leak, has left four people in life-threatening condition and 33 others injured.
www.lemonde.fr
Paris explosion causes fire outburst and buildings to collapse on Left Bank
At least 29 people were injured, four of them very seriously, by an explosion and blaze on Paris' Left Bank on Wednesday, June 21. Two people were still missing. The "violent" fire which broke out after the explosion had now been "contained", Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said at the scene, adding that "work is still taking place under the rubble" to find any more possible victims.
Witnesses described a large explosion at 4:55 pm at
277 Rue Saint-Jacques, home to a fashion school. It preceded a huge fire. The fire service said there had been "an explosion" which had "caused the collapse of two buildings." Paris police spokeswoman Loubna Atta said it was too early to determine the source of the fire and could not confirm reports it was caused by a gas explosion.
The Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said an investigation had been opened into aggravated involuntary injury and the probe would examine whether the explosion stemmed from a suspected violation of safety rules. Beccuau said investigators would seek to “determine whether or not there was failure to respect a rule or individual imprudence that led to the explosion.”
Nunez, the Paris police chief, said firefighters prevented the fire from igniting two neighboring buildings that were “seriously destabilized” by the explosion and evacuated. The explosion blew out several windows in the area, witnesses and the police chief said.
Smoke was no longer visibly rising from the building by Wednesday evening. Sirens still wailed as ambulances passed through the neighborhood, but residents were starting to move freely again on the street, which had been cordoned off earlier.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin asked on Twitter for people to stay away from the area to not hinder the massive deployment of firefighters and police. A total of 230 firefighters were at the site, 70 fire trucks and nine doctors, according to police.
The Paris Police Prefecture also asked residents to avoid the area to allow emergency services and police officers to intervene. On Twitter, images showed a huge cloud of smoke. The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo immediately went to the scene and the Paris City Hall crisis unit was activated.
According to the Paris public prosecutor's office, "a building caught fire and partially collapsed" on Rue Saint-Jacques, near the church of Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce. The public prosecutor's office said that "at this stage, there was no way of determining the cause of the fire."
The mayor of the 5th arrondissement, Florence Berthout, told
Le Monde that a loud explosion had started on the 2nd floor of the Paris American Academy, a bilingual design school at 277 Rue Saint-Jacques. The fire brigade was still securing the perimeter because "glass was falling everywhere", she added.
Contacted by
Le Monde, Philippe Delorme, the secretary general of the Catholic education authority, whose premises adjoin the affected building, said he heard a "loud explosion". "The Paris American Academy building was on fire", said Delorme, adding that the offices of the general secretariat of Catholic education had suffered only "minor damage." "We were evacuated via the Val-de-Grâce hospital [which is in the immediate vicinity] because we feared another explosion", continued Delorme.
French Coverage of this event.
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