2023-06-21 15:49:00
“I thought it was a bombardment”: at least four people were seriously injured on Wednesday followingnoon in the heart of Paris where a fire broke out following an explosion in a building that collapsed, according to a provisional report.
The police headquarters reported at the start of the evening four people in absolute emergency and twenty-five others in relative emergency. According to the prosecution, two people were wanted in the rubble of the building.
Some 270 firefighters were engaged on the scene, in the district of the former military hospital of Val de Grâce, in the 5th arrondissement.
“It’s a provisional report” because “there are still searches under the rubble” but the fire “is contained”, declared the prefect of police, Laurent Nuñez, during a press point on the spot around 6:30 p.m.
The 270 firefighters dispatched, who mobilized 70 machines, “prevented the spread of the fire to two adjoining buildings which were seriously destabilized by the explosion” and “were evacuated”, he added.
Firefighters initially reported the collapse of two buildings. But according to police sources, only one building collapsed.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has decided to cut short a trip to Nancy to return to Paris, according to his entourage. The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, whose services activated the crisis unit, is also on the scene.
The facts occurred shortly before 5:00 p.m. at 277 rue Saint-Jacques, where a private fashion school, the Paris American Academy, is located, near the Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church.
“It made a very strong boom. I fell from my meeting chair, like others,” said an official of the General Secretariat of Catholic Education (Sgec), whose building is adjoining.
“It was preceded by a power cut, a man from our home wanted to go out to see, and noticed a strong smell of gas outside,” he added.
“There is nothing to determine the origin of the disaster” at this stage, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation for “involuntary injuries by violation of an obligation of prudence or safety”. The Paris judicial police have been seized.
The “first elements (…) lead us to confirm that this explosion started from the building”, declared on the spot the prosecutor of the Republic of Paris, Laure Beccuau.
“We are obviously counting on the victims in relative urgency to give us the first elements of investigation and understanding of what may have happened,” she added.
“10 seconds of great concern”
Alexis, 23, who lives on rue Saint-Jacques, describes “smoke, debris too and leaves (which) were flying”.
“We didn’t know if we were going out into the street if something was going to happen, we didn’t know if it was terrorist. The building opposite caught fire, lots of windows exploded,” he added.
Youssef, whose sister lives on the ground floor of 273 rue Saint-Jacques, says that “she was taking a nap and there was a loud explosion, she thought it was an attack”. “She didn’t understand anything. Things from her apartment fell, there are stones in the yard,” he added.
Wednesday’s drama recalls that of January 12, 2019. That day, a strong explosion caused by a gas leak blew the rue de Trévise, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, killing four people including two firefighters, injuring 66 others and leaving some 400 victims.
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