Nine people are still missing – and with little hope of being found alive – after a four-story building in the center of Marseille collapsed due to a strong explosion on the night of Saturday to Sunday. There were five injuries, none seriously.
More than a hundred firefighters, accompanied by search dogs, scrambled to detect signs of life among the rubble. The work was hampered by a fire that took many hours to control. The origin of the powerful deflagration is unknown. The hypothesis of a gas leak was considered, but it has not been confirmed. Nearly two hundred residents of the adjoining buildings were evacuated due to the risk of their homes collapsing. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, went to the scene of the accident. The Marseille mayor, the socialist Benoît Payan, warned from the outset that they feared victims.
The center of Marseille has a bad reputation for the state of some buildings. There have been tragedies in previous years. In 2018 several buildings sank and eight people died. In the following months, more than 4,000 residents were evacuated in several hundred buildings considered dangerous. This time, however, the building was apparently in good repair. He was not on the City Council’s blacklist.
As reported by the local newspaper La Provence, the missing are two elderly couples, a younger couple and two people who lived alone. The ninth missing person lived in an adjoining building.
The explosion is suspected to have occurred on the ground floor, causing the collapse of the entire structure. The seven meters high rubble made the work of firefighters very difficult.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who has never hidden that Marseille is his favorite French city, published a tweet in which he expressed his solidarity with the victims and thanked the relief teams.
