“I had the impression of being caught in a gigantic earthquake…” It was nearly 5 p.m. when an explosion sounded in the rue Saint-Jacques (5th arrondissement of Paris). Estelle, 27, was walking rue du Val-de-Grâce when the detonation “frozen her in place”. It’s been an hour since the building at 277, rue Saint-Jacques partly collapsed under the blast, but the young woman who works on the boulevard de Port-Royal is still shaking. In his image, the whole neighborhood is in shock. Journalists, onlookers and residents prowl all around the security perimeter set up by the police.
“My windows opened suddenly, they slammed”
“I heard that there would be missing? asks a woman who is waiting behind the security cordon. The policeman in front of her does not seem to know more than her. Laurent Nunez, prefect of police of Paris, accompanied by Anne Hidalgo, has just spoken in front of the strained microphones. First assessment: 16 victims, 7 of whom are in absolute emergency. Figures that will quickly change during the evening.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were missing people, comments Monique, 80, who was in her apartment on rue Pierre Nicole at the time of the explosion, my windows suddenly opened, they slammed. Fortunately, it’s double glazing, they didn’t explode. This is not the case of the shops on the street which have fallen. »
For Monique, who has lived in countries at war, the explosion brought up buried anxieties. Anxieties that Kathy felt. Watching a Paris Seine civil protection truck pull out of the area, the flashing lights on, she says she was “scared of his life”: “My 3-year-old son is at his nanny’s, at the top of rue Saint- Jacques. A colleague told me about the explosion. My heart stopped. The time to arrive at my office and I saw that she had sent me a message to reassure me. »
The nanny and her son are fine, they were evacuated by the firefighters at the same time as the whole building. “I can’t wait any longer, I can’t wait for the police to let me through to find my son. “Many residents will not be able to reach their homes tonight: if the fire was quickly brought under control, we must wait to find out if the adjacent buildings have not been weakened by the explosion.
“it looked like a gas explosion”
Among the neighbors gathered, all the hypotheses are evoked for a time, an attack, a “ball of fire”… They are quickly brought to their senses by Laure Beccuau, Paris prosecutor, who announces that the investigation has been entrusted to the Direction of the judicial police: “The investigations begin within the framework of a criminal procedure for involuntary injuries accompanied by aggravating circumstance of deliberate endangering the life of others. According to the magistrate, the surveillance cameras of the City of Paris attest that the explosion comes from inside the building, the gas leak is the preferred hypothesis.
The origin of the explosion will no doubt be confirmed in the hours or days to come. For now, the anxiety remains. The number of injured officially rose to 25, including 4 in “absolute emergency”. A Red Cross truck carrying an injured person passes. The rumor of one or more people still missing spreads quickly.
“We cannot confirm that at this time. We are removing doubts, we are making sure that no one is left in the rubble, ”says a spokesperson for the police headquarters, before being denied by the prosecution: there are indeed two people missing. at the start of the evening. At the same time, the police officers reduced the security perimeter and let residents who could show their address pass. “I’m going to see if I still have windows,” whispers a man before heading down Boulevard de Port-Royal.