“We must be prepared to have victims” warned this Sunday morning 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.
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. . Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is expected on site in the morning.
The collapse “of a building at 17 rue de Tivoli has dragged down part of the neighboring 15th and 19th (buildings), one of which is in danger of collapsing, mayor Benoît Payan told journalists on the spot. 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. No list of possible missing has yet been established and 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”
A race against the clock is also engaged in the neighboring building, at number 15, “which threatens to collapse” too, endangering the rescuers, underlined the mayor. “At the moment, we are clearing the buildings next door, taking care not to endanger the lives of people who are alive inside the rubble,” he said.
At the time of the explosion “everything shook, we saw people running and there was smoke everywhere, the building fell on the street”, told AFP Aziz, a man who preferred to keep his voice quiet. 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.