The collapse of an apartment building in the center of Marseille, France’s second city, left at least five injured and eight people “not responding to calls” as a fire delays searches.
After a violent explosion in the middle of the night, the building at 17 rue de Tivoli, in an area known for its cafes and restaurants, collapsed and two adjoining buildings were damaged, one of which collapsed within hours. following the drama and the second threatens to fall.
” We have […] eight people who do not respond to calls at 17 rue de Tivoli and on a ground floor that connects 15 and 17 […] We have no news, ”said Dominique Laurens, the public prosecutor of Marseille (south).
Five people, residents of the neighboring buildings of 17, were injured, but “none is between life and death”, for their part indicated the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the mayor of Marseilles, Benoit Payan.
“The eight people I quote to you, relatives and families came to say that they had no news”, insisted the prosecutor, referring to information, still unconfirmed on a ninth person who could be sought at the level from number 19 rue de Tivoli.
For hours, firefighters have been racing against time to put out a fire under the rubble that is preventing dogs and rescuers from searching for possible survivors.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, expressed his “emotion” in the face of this tragedy.
Undetermined cause
A lot of smoke was still visible Sunday evening next to a pile of rubble, noted an AFP photographer from a high building in the neighborhood.
“We think there are between four and a dozen people under the rubble,” said Mr. Darmanin earlier, who came specially to Marseille.
“It’s small, but we still have hope,” said the mayor, who remained at the scene overnight, on Sunday evening.
According to the prosecutor, it is “at this time impossible to indicate what are the causes of the explosion” which blew up this four-storey building. The legal expert was unable to access the site, which is still very dangerous and where the emergency services are continuing search operations.
“The gas is obviously part of the tracks” that can explain the explosion, “of extreme violence”, which the surveillance cameras filmed at 00:46 local time, she estimated.
At the time of the explosion “everything shook, we saw people running and there was smoke everywhere, the building fell on the street”, told AFP Aziz, who said he ran a business. food in the street where the building collapsed.
No insalubrity
“We quickly smelled a strong smell of gas, which remained and we smelled it again this morning,” Savera Mosnier, a resident of a nearby street, told AFP.
The assistant in charge of security at the town hall of Marseille, Yannick Ohanessian, confirmed that several witnesses had mentioned “suspicious smells of gas”.
Thirty buildings were evacuated as a precaution. Housing Minister Olivier Klein, who will travel to Marseille on Monday, said this affected 186 people, or 90 households, in four streets.
In November 2018, the collapse on rue d’Aubagne of two buildings in a district of central Marseille killed eight people and sparked a wave of indignation against poor housing in this city where 40,000 people live in slums, according to NGOs.
The hypothesis of unsanitary conditions in the building which collapsed on Sunday, however, seems to have been ruled out by the authorities.
“These are not unsanitary buildings at all,” confirmed the prosecutor.
“Draw the parallel [avec la rue d’Aubagne] is irresponsible […]. Nothing allows us to think that we are in symmetry, ”insisted the mayor.
Marseille has experienced several fatal building collapses over the past 40 years.