According to an updated report at 9 a.m., six people are in absolute emergency and another is still wanted in the rubble, the day after the explosion which destroyed a building in Paris, rue Saint-Jacques, reports the Paris prosecutor’s office to franceinfo Thursday, June 22. The same source specifies that there are in all “about fifty victims”, a figure that includes people psychologically shocked by the explosion. During the night, the second missing person was identified at the hospital. Follow our live.
Lots of help dispatched. Some 270 firefighters and 70 vehicles, including a truck specializing in rescue and clearing, were engaged on the scene, rue Saint-Jacques, in the district of the former military hospital of Val-de-Grâce. Experts from the central laboratory of the police headquarters were also dispatched.
Gas smell. Several witnesses and residents, interviewed by AFP, said they smelled gas and heard a “big explosion”. “It made a very strong boom. I fell from my meeting chair, like others”said an official of the General Secretariat of Catholic Education, whose building is adjoining the one where the explosion took place.
An open investigation. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “involuntary injuries by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of prudence or security”. THE “first elements (…) lead us to confirm that this explosion started from the building”declared on the spot the prosecutor of the Republic of Paris, Laure Beccuau.
Residents will be relocated. “A reception unit has been opened in the town hall of the 5th arrondissement in order to welcome, take care of and inform the victims and the inhabitants affected”, said the municipality. The town hall added that the social landlords have been mobilized and that the City should take charge from Tuesday evening “all residents and victims justifying a need for rehousing”.