“We must be prepared to have victims” warned this Sunday April 9 the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, after the collapse of a four-storey apartment building in the center of the city. At least five people were injured, according to a provisional report, and “between 4 and a dozen people” would be “under the rubble”, said the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, at the end of the morning. Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens announced the opening of an investigation for “unintentional injuries”.
The tragedy, probably due to an explosion but whose exact causes are not yet known, occurred around 12:40 a.m. in a residential area on the edge of the Plaine district, known for its restaurants, bars and nightlife. . “I am thinking of those affected and their loved ones, said Emmanuel Macron on Twitter. Research is continuing with significant resources deployed. Thank you to the firefighters and rescuers mobilized.”
The collapse “of a building at 17 rue de Tivoli dragged down part of the neighboring 15th and 19th (buildings), one of which is in danger of collapsing, Mayor Benoît said overnight. Payan to journalists on site. Six hours later, the rescue operations are continuing and “we must be prepared to have victims in this terrible tragedy”, declared the mayor as day broke on the district, cordoned off by the forces of the ‘order.
Five people, residents of neighboring buildings, were injured, and 33 in total taken care of, but no resident of the collapsed building came forward, rekindling concerns about the fate of the occupants. Firefighters are still fighting a fire that broke out in the rubble, hampering research, said Vice-Admiral Lionel Mathieu, commander of the Marseille firefighters.
More than a hundred men, supported by numerous equipment, are engaged, but the search teams with dogs could not go into action to search for possible survivors, the heat being too intense. “We are trying to speed up the movement because time counts”, underlined Admiral Mathieu, while the smell of smoke persists in the neighborhood.
“Everything shook”
In the morning, the partial collapse – 70% – of number 15 “also complicates the task” of the rescuers because “it adds rubble”, explained Commander Laurent, who directs the operations. Eight people who had taken refuge on the roof terrace of this building were saved during the night by firefighters mounted on a large ladder.
At the time of the explosion last night, “everything shook, we saw people running and there was smoke everywhere, the building fell on the street,” Aziz, a man told AFP. who preferred not to mention his last name, but said he ran a night food business on the street where the building collapsed. “There are strong suspicions that an explosion caused the collapse, but we must remain very careful about the causes at this stage,” the prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône region, Christophe, told AFP. Mirmand, specifying that gas could be “a possible option”.
Other buildings on the street were evacuated as a safety measure on the night of the long Easter weekend and their residents were taken to a school in an emergency, said the prefect. An investigation is open to determine the causes of the disaster and the judicial police are on the scene, according to the mayor.
In November 2018, the collapse on rue d’Aubagne of two buildings in another district of central Marseille, Noailles, left eight people dead and sparked a wave of indignation against poor housing in this city where 40,000 people live in slums, according to NGOs. But both the mayor and the prefect seemed to rule out unsanitary conditions in the building in a district known for its restaurants, bars and nightlife. “There was no danger decree for this building and it is not a district listed as having unsanitary housing,” said the prefect. “To my knowledge, there are no particular problems with this building. We are not on the case of a street with unsanitary housing”, also affirmed the mayor.