“Two lifeless bodies” were found today in the rubble of the building destroyed by an explosion in Marseille, in the south of France, announced the fire department.
“Given the specific difficulties of the intervention, the extraction [of the bodies from the site] will take time”, indicated the firefighters, in a statement.
“The judicial authority will then be able to proceed with the identification” of these victims, they added, pointing to carrying out “a situational assessment to be done early in the morning”.
The collapse of the four-story building, due to an explosion, occurred at 00:04 on Saturday (23:04 on Friday in Lisbon), on Rua Tivoli, in the center of the city, and in the fall it dragged part of the adjacent buildings, having injured five people.
At least nine people were reported missing, 163 people received hospital assistance and 32 buildings were evacuated, French authorities said.
“All city services, supported by state services, are continuing the search,” said the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, in a statement.
In November 2018, eight people died when two buildings collapsed in disrepair, in another part of this city, where 40,000 people live in slums, according to non-governmental organizations.
