At least 16 people were injured this Wednesday in a fire that caused the partial collapse of a building in the center of Paris, police in the French capital reported.
Among the injured people, at least seven are in “absolute urgency”, indicated the provisional balance.
The Paris prosecutor’s office indicated that “a building caught fire and partially collapsed” on rue Saint-Jacqueslocated in the V district of the capital, on the left bank of the Seine river near the Pantheon.
The district mayor noted on Twitter that before the fire there was a gas leak and several residents, quoted by local media, claimed to have heard a loud explosion.
The prosecution indicated, however, that the cause of the explosion had not yet been determined.
An AFP image showed a column of smoke and flames over the ruins of a building.
The police detailed that 230 firefighters and nine doctors were deployed in the place.
The fire has been “controlled”, added the head of the Paris police, Laurent Nuñez. Rescuers are still searching the rubble for victims, he continued.