On the night of Monday, two of the missing were found in the ruins. The search for the other missing persons continues through the night with excavators and manual labor. The accident happened just before one o’clock on the night of Sunday. Then a boom sounded from an explosion in the center of France’s second largest city, Marseille. Excavators search the ruins for the missing. Photo: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP A multi-storey block of flats collapsed followed by a fire in the ruins. In the morning hours, 100 firefighters tried to extinguish the fire. – We are trying to drown the flames at the same time as we are trying to save those who may be trapped in the ruins, the fire chief in Marseille, Lionel Mathieu, told the AP news agency. Only on Sunday evening did the flames show signs of going out, after burning all day, the BBC writes. According to French media, including France 24, eight people are said to have been in the block. Among them will be a young couple. – We must prepare for deaths The mayor of Marseille says in a TV interview that the city must prepare for a difficult situation and that there may be casualties. Marseille’s mayor Benoit Payan (on the left in the picture). Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP On Sunday morning, the country’s interior minister was also in place in Marseille. Gérald Darmanin repeated the mayor’s message that there may be dead: – We think there are between four and a dozen people under the ruins. In a message on Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron writes that he is thinking of those affected. Photo: Screenshot (April 9, 2023) / Twitter – The families are worried The country’s housing minister, Olivier Klein, tells Franceinfo that there are people who have not been accounted for. – Not everyone who is supposed to have been inside the building has been accounted for, the families are worried. It is not known what caused the explosion. It has also not been confirmed that the explosion was the cause of the building collapse. According to local authorities, it is impossible to know the cause of the building’s collapse at this time, but a gas explosion was raised as a possibility. In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, prefect in Marseille Christophe Mirmand says that gas may have been the cause, but adds: – At the present time, we must be careful in speculating about what could have caused this. New building collapsed Two neighboring buildings were also affected by the explosion. One of them has crashed, according to the website Franceinfo. 33 apartments and a total of 160 people must be evacuated. Six people have been sent to hospital. Five of them are said to be seriously injured. The collapsed block of flats is located in the center of Marseille. According to the newspaper Le Monde, the building must have had four floors with an apartment on each floor.
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Two found dead in collapsed block of flats in Marseille – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
