Two bodies found by firefighters in the rubble of the collapsed building in Marseille
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A four-storey apartment building collapsed in central Marseille overnight from Saturday to Sunday. While several people were missing, two “lifeless” bodies were found in the rubble, firefighters said, adding that their extraction “will take time”.
Hopes of finding missing people dwindle after building collapses in central Marseilles, on the night of Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 April. “Two lifeless bodies” were found overnight from Sunday to Monday in the rubble of the building blown up by an explosion, firefighters said.
“Given the particular difficulties of intervention, the extraction (of the bodies from the site) will take time”, specified the firefighters in a brief press release, confirming information from the newspaper La Provence and the BFMTV channel. “The judicial authority will then be able to proceed to the identification” of these victims, continues the text. “A status update will be made early in the morning.”
“Tonight, the pain and pain are great,” reacted in a press release the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan.
This discovery comes just over 24 hours after the gigantic explosion that blew up a four-storey building in Marseille. The building located at 17 rue de Tivoli, in the 5th arrondissement of Marseille, collapsed on Sunday at 12:46 a.m., damaging two adjacent buildings in its fall. The building of number 15, weakened, ended up collapsing in turn in the early morning.
About a hundred firefighters and 38 vehicles are involved in the operations. Their work was, among other things, hampered by a persistent fire under the rubble.
Eight people wanted
The prosecutor of the Republic of Marseilles had indicated, earlier Sunday, that the relief was still looking for eight people presumed missing in the rubble.
“We think there are between four and a dozen people under the rubble,” said Gérald Darmanin during a press briefing. The collapse also left five injured “in relative emergency” and none is “between life and death”.
In a press release, the town hall of Marseille indicated that 33 buildings had been evacuated as a precaution and that 199 people had had to leave their homes. About fifty people with no alternative accommodation will be accommodated at the hotel, said Benoît Payan on BFMTV.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “involuntary injuries”.
With AFP and Reuters
