Collapsed buildings in Marseille: the names of the first four victims revealed

72 hours after the disaster, an entire district of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) is crying for friends and neighbors. Firefighters have so far extracted six bodies from the rubble, four of which have been identified today. On the ground floor, a retired couple has still not been found. The man used to work in a butcher’s shop. “He was the ray of sunshine in the neighborhood in fact, we will miss him a lot and I think very much of him”, confides the one who succeeded him at the butcher’s shop. With his wife, they often walked around the neighborhood. All have fond memories.

A funeral wake at the parish

On the ground floor lived Nicole Gacon, 66, a Bordelaise who fell in love with Marseille. On the first floor was the dean of the building, Antonietta Alemo, 89. Her niece struggles to hold back her tears: “I hope she did not suffer in this accident”. A funeral wake was organized last night in his parish. On the 2nd floor, a couple in their thirties had moved in just over a year ago. Finally, under the roof lived Anne-Marie and Jacques Praxy, a couple of Marseille architects.