A strong explosion ignited a blaze in central Paris on Wednesday that sent smoke soaring over the domed Pantheon monument and prompted the evacuation of buildings in the neighbourhood. Police said 24 people were injured, four of them critically, while two more were missing.
Issued on: Modified:
The facade of a building in the 5th arrondissment, or district, collapsed and emergency services were working to determine if anyone was still inside, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, adding that two people were missing.
The explosion hit a design school popular with foreign students near the historic Val de Grace military hospital, on the edge of the Latin Quarter.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told reporters there were 24 people injured, including four in a “critical condition”. The fire was contained but not extinguished, Nunez said.
Florence Berthout, the mayor of the arrondissement, spoke of an “extremely violent” blast, describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.
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.
Television images showed rubble from the Paris American Academy strewn across the Rue Saint-Jacques and smoke rising from at least two nearby buildings that were ablaze.
“I heard a huge explosion,” local bar employee Khal Ilsey told Reuters. “And as I was leaving the restaurant, I saw flames at the end of Rue Saint-Jacques.”
The blast occurred at 4:55 pm local time (1455 GMT), just as workers were heading home.
More than 200 firefighters were involved in the emergency response. TV images showed firefighters manning hoses and aiming jets of water at the blaze while a plume of thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin urged people to stay away so as not to hinder emergency workers.
Un incendie est en cours rue Saint-Jacques, dans le 5ème arrondissement de Paris. Les sapeurs-pompiers de Paris interviennent. Merci de ne pas gêner leur intervention et d’éviter le secteur.@prefpolice @PompiersParis
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) June 21, 2023
Rue Saint-Jacques leads from Notre-Dame Cathedral to the Sorbonne University and the Val de Grace, a few blocks from the popular Jardin du Luxembourg.
The area is usually packed with tourists and foreign students in the early summer.
“I was at home writing… I thought it was a bomb,” said art historian Monique Mosser, adding that many of the windows in her building had been blown out by the blast’s shock wave.
“A neighbour knocked on the door and told me that the fire brigade were asking us to evacuate as quickly as possible,” Mosser added. “I grabbed my laptop, my phone. I didn’t even think to take my medication.”
(FRANCE 24 with AP, Reuters)
For all the latest health News Click Here
