A house collapsed in downtown Marseille over the Easter weekend, killing at least five people. Rescue workers found their bodies in the rubble after hours of operation on Monday. There was initially no information on the identity of the victims.
The eight residents of the building have been missing since the collapse on Sunday night. The search for those allegedly buried continued under difficult conditions.
Fire under the rubble made rescue difficult
“As long as there is hope of finding people alive, we will not stop,” said Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan. However, he had already admitted on Sunday evening that the hope of finding people alive under the rubble was vanishingly small.
The rescue work was difficult because a fire broke out several meters below the rubble after the collapse. In order not to endanger those who were buried, the fire brigade could not extinguish it in the classic way with foam and water. The rescue dogs were initially unable to search for buried victims because of the smell of burning and the heat. The fire had not been completely extinguished by Monday afternoon.
More than 30 houses evacuated
A four-storey house on Rue Tivoli in Marseille’s fifth arrondissement collapsed on Sunday night. Parts of the two neighboring houses were also torn down. A few hours later, one of the houses next to it also collapsed completely. The reason for the collapse was probably an explosion. Five people from neighboring buildings were injured in the accident. More than 30 houses were evacuated.
“Eight people lived in the building and it is those eight people that we have no news of at this time,” prosecutor Dominique Laurens said on Sunday evening. The presumably buried people are mostly older people and a couple in their 30s. Children were probably not in the building when it collapsed. How it came to the explosion is still unclear. The house and neighboring buildings were not known to be dilapidated or in danger of collapsing.
The incident on Easter night and the long fears about the allegedly buried people caused horror in France. Shocked local residents were seen on television.
French head of state Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that he was thinking of all those affected and their families. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne was also dismayed on Twitter. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin traveled to the scene of the accident in the southern French port city on Sunday morning. (dpa)
To home page
