Fire hampers rescue effort after Marseille building collapse

Emergency workers faced a dilemma in tackling the collapse of a residential building on Sunday morning after a loud explosion rocked Marseille's central La Plaine district.

Scores of firefighters sought to put out fires beneath the debris in a painstaking operation aimed at not harming people that may be buried underneath.

Local prosecutor Dominique Laurens said eight people "were not responding to phone calls" and could be victims of the collapse.

What we know so far

The commander of the Marseille fire brigade, Lionel Mathieu, said the intense heat had made it impossible to send in dog teams to search.

"We're trying to drown the fire while preserving the lives of potential victims under the rubble," Mathieu said.

The explosion, shortly before 1 a.m. local time, (0000 UTC/GMT) shook the neighborhood, which is one of the older quarters of France's second-largest city.

Marseille's mayor, Benoit Payan, said two neighboring buildings had also partly collapsed, with a third one in danger of also doing so.

"Firefighters are gauging minute by minute the best way to put out the fire," Payan told a televised briefing. "The lives of firefighters are also at play," he said. "We must prepare to have victims," the mayor noted.

Payan said the explosion was the probable cause of the collapse but that an investigation would need to be launched. It is thought that a gas leak might have caused the blast.

"I express all the emotion and support of Marseille in the face of this tragedy," Payan tweeted.

"We cannot know today what caused this very big explosion," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, adding that the house was not known to be in danger of collapsing.

He said that there could be between four and 10 people beneath the rubble. "We don't know if they are alive or dead," he said.

Some 30 homes had been evacuated, the minister said.

Questions over building integrity

The collapse raised fresh concerns about housing standards in the port city.

A major structural collapse also occurred in Marseille in November 2018, when eight people died after two dilapidated buildings collapsed in the working-class district of Noailles.

Officials appeared to dismiss structural issues as the cause of the latest collapse.

"There was no danger code for this building, and it is not in a neighborhood identified as having substandard housing," regional prefect Christophe Mirmand told the AFP news agency.

rc/kb (AFP, AP)