Two children have died following an explosion at a house in the town of Trévoux, located in the Ain region in eastern France.
There were six victims in total, but the condition of the other four remained unclear, according to the local prefect.
Rescue operations were ongoing on Monday night, and residents were urged to avoid the area as the risk had not yet been eliminated. Around fifty firefighters were deployed at the scene.
The explosion occurred at approximately 5:30 p.m.on the ground floor of a four-storey building. Windows in two nearby schools were shattered by the blast, although no injuries were reported at the schools, according to the prefect.
A local official, Philippe Berthaud, stated that a woman and her three children were inside the home at the time of the explosion. She and her eldest son survived, but her two younger children were critically injured.
The children, aged three and five, were pulled from the rubble in cardiopulmonary arrest. Emergency services confirmed their deaths soon after.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
