Nearly twenty-four hours after the gigantic explosion which blew up a four-storey building in Marseille, the emergency services found, on the night of Sunday April 9 to Monday April 10, the lifeless bodies of two people.
“Given the particular difficulties of intervention, the extraction [des corps du site] will take time”said the firefighters in a brief press release, confirming information from the newspaper Provence and the BFMTV channel.
Eight people, who lived in the building, are sought by the rescuers who continue their operations at night in the light of searchlights, helped by a crane, after having been slowed down from the start by a persistent fire under the rubble.
The intervention of the rescue dogs was complicated by these conditions and they had not yet ” brand “ at the end of the evening the presence of possible victims, according to the firefighters.
L’explosion, “extremely violent” according to the Marseille prosecutor, Dominique Laurens, occurred at 12:46 a.m. on the night of Saturday to Sunday, as evidenced by the surveillance cameras which captured it. 17 rue de Tivoli, a building housing five apartments in a rather residential area of the city center, was completely blown up. The two adjoining buildings were badly damaged, but all their occupants were able to escape or be saved by the marine firefighters.
An adjoining building collapsed
One of these buildings collapsed later in the day, burying the scene under even more rubble but without injuring the rescuers. The other is also threatening to collapse.
Authorities fear that eight residents of the blown building who “do not answer calls” of their relatives are buried under the rubble, the prosecutor told the press, who opened an investigation entrusted to the judicial police.
These missing are “people of a certain age and a young couple in their thirties”but there would be no children or minors, said Mr.me Laurens. She also mentioned a ninth person “who is currently wanted at 19 rue de Tivoli”.
Five people were slightly injured and 33 in total “affected”, according to the authorities. A sign of the devastating effects of the explosion, 199 inhabitants of the district – representing 90 households – had to be evacuated and 50 requested emergency rehousing.