Marseille is in mourning. A four-story building collapsed in the night between Saturday and Sunday in Marseille after a brutal explosion, which could be gas, near the port of the Phoenician city. So far they have found four bodies and 6 are still missing and 5 wounded. The entire rue de Rivoli has been evacuated. Three buildings were hit and are in danger of collapsing.

It was 00:46 on Sunday when an explosion, “which sounded like a bomb”, woke up the whole neighborhood. 17 rue de Tivoli it had collapsed in a cloud of dust and a fire broke out. According to close witnesses, in the first few minutes, screams were heard in the four-story building, with five apartments.

An explosion “of extreme violence” was filmed by surveillance cameras in the city, Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens said at a news conference. Five people, living in nearby buildings, were injured and were being treated urgently.

The collapse of this building “dragged part of the neighboring buildings 15 and 19 in its fall,” the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, told the press on Sunday morning.

During the day, 199 people were evacuated from about forty buildings in the district. Of these, 50 were cared for and hosted by the Municipality.

first two dead

“Two lifeless bodies” were initially discovered in the night between Sunday and Monday in the rubble of the airport two buildings collapsed on the rue de Tivoli in Marseille, the city’s Marines-Fire Brigade said.

This Monday morning, when France is still on the Easter holiday, firefighters found two more bodiesone after the other, with the help of specialized dogs.

At least eight people, who lived in the building, weren’t answering their phones, according to the lawyer. Another person, who lived on that block at age 19, was listed as missing but her relatives called on Monday.

“Given the particular difficulties of the intervention, the extraction will take time. The judicial authority will then be able to proceed with the identification,” he said.

The relatives have reported to the authorities and are undergoing a DNA test. Apparently the bodies could be volatilized in the explosion.

The identity of the two victims discovered in the night between Sunday and Monday has not yet been communicated. Hope to find survivors is small”, said Benoît Payan, mayor of Marseille. “We still have hope, it’s small but we want to keep hope and that’s why we are fighting,” said the mayor of Marseille.

The missing are “people of a certain age and a young couple in their thirties”, “but there would be no children or minors”, according to the Marseille prosecutor.

“Hope must sustain us”, wrote the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, who was present from the beginning on Twitter on Sunday evening. “All teams remain mobilized and determined to help and find people alive.”

the search continues

At least 36 hours after the events, the rescue operations continue and “we must prepare to have victims in this terrible tragedy”, warned Benoît Payan.

“Firefighters fought all Sunday against a fire that broke out in the rubble and hampered the investigation,” said Vice Admiral Lionel Mathieu, commander of the Marseille fire brigade.

They were more than a hundred men, supported by numerous teams, day and night. Rescuers continued their operations in the light of floodlights, helped by a crane, the firefighters take turns but work with the help of adrenaline.

The intervention of the rescue dogs was complicated by these conditions and by the fire. The two dogs were unable to “mark” the presence of possible victims of the fire.

Gas explosion?

“There are strong suspicions that an explosion caused the collapse. But we have to be very careful about the causes at the moment,” said the prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône region Christophe Mirmand. He specified that “it could be gas, a possible option“.

The cause of the explosion was “impossible” to establish at the end of the day on Sunday, according to the prosecutor, in particular due to the impossibility of the experts to access the site.

Dominique Laurens also announced the opening of an investigation for “culpable injuries”, entrusted to the judicial police.

In a city still traumatized by the tragedy of the collapse of an unhealthy building in rue d’Aubagne, the unhealthy hypothesis is excluded in this case. The buildings had no security issues. The neighborhood was elegant and the building, well maintained.

From Monday evening the evacuation perimeter will be reduced and at least 40 apartments will be reoccupied. Others will need to be reinsured before the families can return.

Firefighters are removing stones from the volatilized building to find the bodies. It is believed that there probably could be at least 10 people under the rubbles, according to the mayor’s office.

But nearby buildings are hard hit and firefighters need to assess which area they are working in for their own safety. Technicians analyze safe areas and apartments that can be reoccupied. The firefighters are also assisted by psychological support.

Drones are being used in the area to detect signs of life.

The testimony of the neighbors

Neighbors heard “a big boom” at midnight like a bomb. “When we opened the windows, there was a lot of dust in the air. Then we saw the windows of the buildings blown up, the smell of gas, the ashes. We were shocked but had no other idea than to get out and run, get away from there,” said a neighbor, who lives across the street from the collapsed building.

There were dozens of families who left: grandparents, couples with children and babies, who felt their buildings shook. An avalanche of people running down that street in the middle of the night. The shock wave was felt for miles around.. People left with nothing: in pajamas, without identity documents or phones, without clothes.

The authorities have protected them in a gymnasium, hotels and in this one they will be in charge of securing their apartments upscale district of Marseille. But everyone is waiting to know if their apartments have not suffered structural damage from the explosion.

ap