A loud explosion sounded around 1:30 a.m. in one of the main arteries of this town located regarding fifteen kilometers from Perpignan, causing a fire in small two-storey buildings on either side of the street.
The toll is heavy in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque (Pyrénées-Orientales), where seven people died overnight from Sunday to Monday during a fire triggered by an explosion of unknown origin. Gérald Darmanin goes there this Monday followingnoon.
A loud explosion sounded around 1:30 a.m. in one of the main arteries of this town located regarding fifteen kilometers from Perpignan, causing a fire in small two-storey buildings on either side of the street.
In the morning, the emergency services discovered five dead bodies in the rubble of these buildings, the ground floors of which were occupied by a grocery store and a fast food stand.
An investigation has been opened to determine the causes of the explosion, said the prosecution, while the public prosecutor Jean-David Cavaillé was to speak at midday to give more details on the circumstances of the tragedy, during a press briefing.
At the start of the morning, he had reported that there was no news of a family, of which we do not know if they were in their accommodation.
“Extraordinary violence”
A resident of a neighboring apartment, awakened in the middle of the night by the detonation, described a scene of “horror”, “of extraordinary violence”.
“A lady called for help from the building opposite, when I opened the window, then I no longer heard her voice. The buildings were ravaged by flames, It was total panic”, confided to Nadine Bret, 59 years old.
“I heard a very loud explosion, then I saw big flames, she says, then we heard screams, the windows on the other side of the street exploded, the fire started in the grocery store or in the snack bar on the ground floor. (Sunday) followingnoon, they were doing work in the snack bar.”
Like other victims, she was evacuated by firefighters to the village hall of the town located near the Mediterranean coast. She hopes to return to her apartment as soon as possible to see the damage. Residents of the neighborhood had to be relocated, we learned from the town hall.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families”
Several fire engines were on site to secure the scene following having brought the fire under control overnight. The search operations focused on two small buildings, rendered unstable by the damage caused by the flames.
“CTA/CODIS agents received a call following an explosion in a business in the heart of the village which caused the fires in the homes above,” the Pyrénées-Orientales firefighters said in a statement Monday morning. .
A man in his thirties had to be evacuated, being in a state of absolute emergency, following trying to escape the flames by jumping from his window located on the second floor of one of the buildings affected by the fire .
“Our thoughts are with the victims and their families. We will mobilize to help them as best we can in these most tragic circumstances,” said the town hall of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque in a press release.
The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, traveling Monday in the Pyrénées-Orientales, went there.
