The results of the collapse of a building at 17 rue de Tivoli, in the city center of Marseille, are becoming clearer. And as authorities feared, it is tragic. Twenty-four hours after the gigantic explosion that ripped through the four-storey building, “two lifeless bodies” were found in the rubble, firefighters announced shortly after 1 a.m. on Monday.
“Given the particular difficulties of intervention, the extraction (of the bodies from the site) will take time,” they said in a brief statement. The judicial services will then be responsible for identification.
Emergency services hampered by fire
“Tonight the pain and the pain are great”, reacted for his part the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, on the spot from the start to coordinate the operations. “We continue to do everything to carry out the rescue operations”, he continued, assuring that “all the services of the City, accompanied by the services of the State, are always, at this very moment, fully committed to further research.
The public prosecutor of Marseille Dominique Laurens had indicated earlier on Sunday that the rescue services were still looking for eight people presumed missing. Since the start of the rescue operations, the work of the rescuers has been hampered by a persistent fire under the rubble. The intervention of the rescue dogs was particularly complicated by these very difficult conditions.
The cause of the explosion still unknown
The eight missing are “people of a certain age and a young couple in their thirties”, but there would be no children or minors, said Dominique Laurens. She also mentioned a ninth person “who is currently wanted at 19 rue de Tivoli”.
The cause of the explosion was “impossible” to establish at the end of the day on Sunday, according to the prosecutor, in particular because of the impossibility for the legal experts to access the unsecured site. But “gas is obviously part of the tracks”, she indicated, as before her the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône or the deputy in charge of security at the town hall of Marseille, Yannick Ohanessian, according to whom several witnesses mentioned “suspicious smells of gas”.