The bang was heard for miles around. An explosion caused the collapse of a three-story building in Sanary-sur-Mer (Var), very early Tuesday, December 7. Its origin is unknown, even if a smell of gas was noticed by the emergency services when they arrived on site.
A man was found dead in the rubble, firefighters said. Five injured were also identified, including a mother and a baby who emerged from the rubble. Two people are still wanted in what remains of the building. Franceinfo summarizes what we know for the moment of this collapse.
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What is the outcome of this collapse?
A 30-year-old man was found dead in the rubble, firefighters told AFP. At first, he was presented as unconscious but it was not known if he could be alive.
Earlier, a woman and her baby had been pulled from the rubble, injured, but alive. “It is very likely that [l’homme tué dans l’effondrement] be the baby’s daddy “, told AFP the director of cabinet of the prefect of Var, Houda Vernhet. Three other occupants of the building, slightly injured, were hospitalized early in the morning.
Two other people are still wanted in the rubble, add the firefighters. A count of the occupants of the building had been established through eyewitness accounts, but it is not known whether these two people were actually there at the time of the explosion. According to information from France Bleu Provence, it is an elderly mother and her son, both disabled, who lived on the first floor.
Two medical teams from Smur and 97 firefighters, some of whom came from Bouches-du-Rhône, are taking part in the operations. They include teams specializing in clearing and rescuing, in particular dog teams.
Two buildings located on either side of the one destroyed by the explosion were also damaged by the blast, noted an AFP journalist. They were evacuated and their occupants are accommodated in a gymnasium, specifies the prefecture.
What is the cause of the explosion?
Located on the port of Sanary-sur-Mer, between two creperies, the three-storey building is nothing more than a heap of rubble. The explosion occurred around 3:50 a.m. “Some people heard a big ‘boom’, tells a policeman to AFP. The noise was heard very far away, as far as Six-Fours, more than 8 km away. “
“The origin of the explosion is unknown”, added this policeman quoted by the press agency. According to the prefecture, “the emergency services arrived on site detected a strong smell of gas”. The gas supply was cut off around the perimeter around the building.
“It is a building which did not present any particular risks and which was in good condition”, said the sub-prefect of Var, Audrey Graffault, to BFMTV.
This three-storey building is located on rue Jean Jaurès, in the heart of this tourist town of 15,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast.
What are the reactions?
The president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, commented on Twitter on “terrible pictures” of the collapsed building.
Terrible images of the port district of #Sanary, which we discover this morning.
We all hope that as many survivors as possible can be found in the rubble of this building.
Huge recognition to the 40 #firefighters of @ SDIS83 mobilized on the spot! https://t.co/HD8sqE79ZQ
– Renaud Muselier (@RenaudMuselier) December 7, 2021
Hubert Falco, the mayor of Toulon, the prefecture of Var, also expressed his “dread”.
This morning we learned with dismay of the collapse of a building following an explosion in the port of Sanary-sur-Mer. #Sanary pic.twitter.com/VbDi5Bl5fm
– Hubert Falco (@hubertfalco) December 7, 2021