French rescue workers are searching for a person feared missing in the rubble after a powerful blast ripped through a street in central Paris, injuring more than 30 people – four of them critically.
The blast started fires and caused the collapse of the facade of a building housing a design school. At least 37 people were injured,
Some of the four critically injured people suffered severe burns, said health minister Francois Braun. One person who was feared missing has been found.
Witnesses described a deafening explosion and a giant fireball that rose several stories high on the Rue Saint-Jacques in the 5th arrondissement, not far from the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.
Flames and smoke erupt from a building— (Reuters)
Florence Berthout, mayor of the Paris district where the blast occurred, said the 12 students who should have been in the design school's classrooms when the blast occurred had fortunately gone to visit an exhibition with their teacher.
"Otherwise the [death toll] could have been absolutely horrific," Berthout told BFM TV, adding that three children who had been passing by at the time were among the injured, although their lives were not in danger.
The Paris prosecutor's office said it was too early to say what caused the blast, but witnesses told BFM TV there had been a strong smell of gas moments before the explosion.
“The shop shook violently, it felt like a bomb blast,” said Rahman Oliur, who manages a food shop a few doors down the street from the academy.
Firemen use a water canon to put out the blaze— (AP)
The blast occurred at 4.55pm local time (1455 GMT), just as workers were heading home. The area is busy with tourists and international students in the early summer.
Several nearby buildings were evacuated. More than two hours after the explosion, first aiders were still treating residents for shock. A number of the injuries were said to have been sustained when people were blown off their feet by the blast.
More than 200 firefighters were involved in the emergency response. TV images showed firefighters manning hoses and aiming jets of water at the blaze while a plume of thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said later that the blaze had been brought under control.
Rue Saint-Jacques in the 5th arrondissement of central Paris leads from the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral to the Sorbonne University and the Val-de-Grâce military hospital and is a few streets from the popular Jardin du Luxembourg.
The blaze was attended by more than 200 firefighters— (EPA)
Police officers and rescue workers work at the scene— (AP)
Art historian Monique Mosser said: “I thought it was a bomb.”
Many of the windows in her building had been blown out by the blast’s shockwave, she added.
“A neighbour knocked on the door and told me that the fire brigade were asking us to evacuate as quickly as possible. I grabbed my laptop, my phone. I didn’t even think to get my medication,” she added.
Smoke from the building billows over Paris— (Reuters)
Paris prosecutors said a probe had been opened into “aggravated involuntary injury”. Investigators are expected to look into whether building conditions were in breach of regulations or if an individual had acted without due care.
Mr Nunez said firefighters prevented the blaze from igniting two neighbouring buildings that were “seriously destabilised” by the explosion and evacuated. The explosion blew out several windows in the area, witnesses and the police chief said.
The Paris American Academy is a private school, founded in 1965, which offers fashion design, interior design, fine arts and creative writing courses.
A blast in January 2019 in Paris’s 9th arrondissement killed four people and left dozens injured.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
