Photo: Abdulmonam Eassa/AFP/Getty Images
The Paris police prefect, Laurent Núñez, explained that, In addition to the seven very serious, another nine injured are relatively serious.
In statements to the press together with the mayoress of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, Núñez insisted that this balance was still provisional because the search for other possible victims in the rubble continued, although he noted that the fire was contained.
The police prefect was “extremely prudent” about the origin of the deflagration, although from the first moments the number two of the V district mayor’s office in which the events occurred, Édouard Civel, had affirmed that it all started with an explosion of gas in Alfonse Laveran square.
A thesis in which the French Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, had also abounded, and which had been accredited by some witnesses, who said they had noticed a strong smell of gas.
Headquarters of the Paris American Academy fashion school
The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, had an impact, like Núñez, on the same idea that “for now, nothing allows to determine the origin of the accident” and said that technical investigations will be carried out and the images from the surveillance cameras will be analyzed.
Beccuau pointed out that all the elements point to the fact that the deflagration came from inside the building that partially collapsed, in which the Paris American Academya fashion school on rue Saint Jacques.
The prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation into the causes that caused the injuries and endangered the lives of third parties, to try to determine if there could have been any individual imprudence or if some safety rules were breached.
The explosion occurred around 5:00 p.m. local time. and quickly the forces of order cordoned off the area, while 267 firefighters with 70 vehicles worked inside.
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