Eight missing after a house raid in Marseille

Five people in nearby houses were injured when the building collapsed. The cause is not clear, but it could be a gas explosion. Several witnesses reported being awakened by a loud bang during Sunday night.

– I was asleep and there was a huge bang that made the room shake. Very soon we were able to smell a strong smell of gas, which lingered until the morning, her neighbor Saveria Mosnier told AFP.

There may be victims

Mayor Benoit Bayan warned early on of the potential for casualties.

During a visit to the crash site, Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin said it was unclear how many people were in the house when it collapsed. But on Sunday evening, there were still eight people who authorities were unable to arrest.

– We do not know if they are alive or dead, he told reporters.

Nothing was left of the house but stone and rubble, but due to the difficulty of extinguishing the fire, which broke out early in the race, it was not possible to properly inspect the place. About 100 firefighters are involved in the work. Control of the fire is said to be “extremely difficult”.

– The fire prevents us from sending dogs and search teams to find more people who may be under the rubble, says Mayor Benoît Bayan.

180 have been evacuated

Rescue work is also complicated by the partial collapse of nearby houses. Eight people who fled to a rooftop balcony had to be rescued using a ladder, and a total of about 180 people were evacuated from their homes on the street.

In a post on Twitter, President Emmanuel Macron thanked firefighters and rescue workers and said he was thinking of those affected.

Eight people were killed in Marseille in 2018 when two dilapidated buildings collapsed in the working-class district of Noel. The incident casts a sharp spotlight on the city’s poor housing standards in some places.