The origin of the explosion which occurred on Wednesday in this building on rue Saint-Jacques, in the 5th arrondissement of the capital, remains undetermined.
The incident occurred shortly before 5 p.m. An explosion of still unknown origin took place, Wednesday, June 21, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. It caused the collapse of a building, located at 275-277 rue Saint-Jacques, and injured around fifty people, according to a report released Thursday morning.
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The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “involuntary injuries by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of prudence or security”. The Paris judicial police have been seized. THE “first elements (…) lead us to confirm that this explosion started from the building”said Wednesday, at the scene of the explosion, the public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau.
This old building, a former entrance pavilion to the Val-de-Grâce abbey, listed as a historical monument, housed a private fashion school, the Paris American Academy. According to Vanessa, real estate agent in Paris, who affirms on BFMTV “know very well” the school and its building, the ground floor houses offices and the upper floors, classrooms. According to the school’s website, written entirely in English, the school is bilingual and was founded in 1965 by an American musician, Richard Roy. He dispenses “world-class education for over fifty years, sharing the love of fashion, interior design, creative writing and the arts, to students and professionals from 35 countries”.
A school “known in the world of fashion”
The school, registered as a higher education institution with the Paris Academy, offers different courses: over three years, by semester and workshop sessions during the summer, some of which take place in June. But the majority of courses are organized from September to May. “It has very small numbers, less than 50 students. It is a fairly qualitative institution, known in the world of fashion. With foreign students who come to learn Parisian fashion and seamstresses from haute couture houses who come there give lessons”, accurate to Parisian Edouard Civel, first deputy mayor of the 5th arrondissement.
The University of Kent, in the United States, confirms that nine of its students who followed a session from June 1 to 28, housed in the establishment, are safe. On the other hand, the president of the institution, Peter Carman, is hospitalized “in critical condition, under anesthesia”, according to information from the school’s Facebook page, updated by Chiara Zuccolotto, used to feeding the social networks of the Paris American Academy. Another person from the school, contacted by franceinfo, confirmed that Peter Carman was hospitalized.
In this publication, presented as “an update thread”, we can also read that the students were attending a fashion show at the time of the explosion and that the state of health of three professors remains uncertain.
For her part, the mayor of the 5th arrondissement of Paris told France Télévisions, quoting a representative of the American embassy, that the students of the school had gone to visit an exhibition on Wednesday. But the establishment has neither confirmed nor denied this information.