Death toll rises to five in central Marseille fire

French authorities found a fifth body in the ruins of a building in Marseille, southern France, after a fire broke out on Saturday evening.

According to the agency ReutersAuthorities had previously said they had identified eight people missing in an explosion that destroyed three buildings.

Finding the bodies is “terrible, difficult and dramatic,” housing minister Olivier Klein said. He added that rescue operations are continuing with “care and determination” and 40 buildings near the scene have been evacuated.

According to the same source, the collapse caused a fire that hampered rescue efforts and continued to burn on Monday morning.

“There is still hope to find survivors,” Benoît Payan, mayor of France’s second-largest city, said on Monday.

Hundreds of rescuers, supported by dogs, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and heat probes, continue the operation, and the fire that caused the collapse is still active in some areas.

“The fire did not cover all parts (of the building), there is hope that there are still living people,” Vice Admiral Lionel Mathieu, commander of the Marseille maritime fire brigade, said, referring to the “battle against time.” .

The mayor said at night that “the pain and sadness were great” when firefighters announced they had recovered two bodies from the rubble of an apartment building located at number 17 Rua Tivoli.

The five-apartment building collapsed after a powerful explosion.

Dominique Laurent, from Marseille’s prosecutor’s office, said on Sunday evening that among the missing were “people of a certain age and a young couple in their thirties.

The prosecutor added that there were “no children or minors” inside the building.

This Monday, Agence France Presse reports that the collapse of this building, located in a residential area close to the busiest streets of Marseille, has caused a new shock in a city marked in recent weeks by a series of deadly drug-related shootings. drug trafficking and resulting in the death of several young people in socially disadvantaged areas.

As a precautionary measure, about 200 people were evacuated from buildings located near the building on fire.

Parent-teacher associations in central Marseille, as well as local residents, have mobilized to offer housing, clothing and psychological support to people who have been forced to leave their homes.

The city council of Marseille organized a housing process and a family reception center with psychological support for relatives of the missing.

However, authorities have already launched an investigation into the cause of the explosion that caused the collapse of the building, with the most likely cause being a gas leak.

“This morning we smelled a strong smell of gas, which is still felt,” a resident of the nearby Savera Monnier told France Press.

In 2018, a fire in two dilapidated houses in the same area of ​​the city killed eight people, but the municipality and the prosecutor’s office noted that Saturday’s fire “was different” because it hit a building “in good condition.” state”.