In a heavy explosion in the central part of Paris, 37 people were injured, four of them seriously writes the BBC.
The explosion occurred on Wednesday, the 21st of June, in the fifth arrondissement of the French capital, in a building that houses a design school and the principal office of the Catholic education system. According to witnesses, there was a strong smell of gas before the explosion.
Huge explosion rocks Paris! #Paris pic.twitter.com/E43CyLjpMt
— Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) June 21, 2023
The local deputy mayor, Edouard Civel, reported on social networks that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak, however,
the authorities informed that the exact cause of the blast is still unknown.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau informed that initial checks of the building’s video records show that the explosion happened inside the building. The police cordoned off the area, and the French Interior Minister also visited the scene.
A representative of the Paris municipality informed on Thursday, the 22nd of June, that one of the missing persons was found in the hospital, and the other missing person is still being searched for in the ruins.
The area where the explosion took place is popular with tourists and known for its large student population. A student told Le Parisien: “I was in front of the Val de Grâce, I heard a huge boom and I saw a ball of fire 20 or 30m high. And the building collapsed with a huge noise. I smelled gas, but took several minutes to come to my senses.”