Between four and a dozen could be under the rubble of a building that collapsed overnight in central Marseille and where a raging fire is preventing rescue workers search, French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, said on Sunday.
Four people are “certain” to be there and “a dozen could be there,” according to the minister, who came to France’s second city to support the residents and the many firefighters working at the scene of the tragedy.
“We don’t know who exactly was in that building. As far as we know, there could have been about ten people living in that building at that time of the morning. Four people appear to be there for sure. We don’t know if they are alive or dead,” the minister said.
Some 100 firefighters are working at the scene. “We are faced with a rare phenomenon of fire persisting for several hours at very high temperatures. The dogs are unable to look, to see, to smell what is going on,” Marseille mayor Benoît Payan explained.
It’s not yet clear what caused the explosion and the building to collapse.
“Several testimonies have come back to us since this morning to say that there were suspicious gas smells,” deputy in charge of security at Marseille city hall, Yannick Ohanessian, said.
