PARIS, April 9 (Portal) – Eight people are not responding to calls and are believed to be under the rubble of two buildings that collapsed in an explosion early Sunday in the southern French city of Marseille, local officials said.
The cause of the explosion is not yet known, said Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens.
The collapse caused a fire that complicated rescue efforts and investigations and was not brought under control, she told a news conference.
Television footage showed plumes of smoke billowing from the rubble as firefighters tried to put out the blaze, while trained dogs were used to try to locate victims.
“We have nothing, not even an ID card. We lost everything,” said a man, who gave his name only as Roland, in an interview with local newspaper La Provence. He managed to get out of the building at 15 rue de Tivoli with his wife and two children before it collapsed along with a neighboring building.
[1/5] Firefighters work after a building collapse in Marseille, France April 9, 2023, in this screenshot taken from a social media video. BFMTV/via Portal
A third building partially collapsed.
Five people were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin, who visited the site, said 30 buildings in the area had been evacuated.
In 2018, about a kilometer from the tragedy, three buildings believed to be uninhabitable collapsed, killing eight people.
The mayor of Marseille said a parallel could not be drawn, while the prosecutor said there were no known structural problems with the buildings that collapsed on Sunday.
“Thoughts are with Marseille,” said President Emmanuel Macron in a Twitter message.
Reporting by Layli Foroudi Editing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Barbara Lewis
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