Body found in rubble six days after explosion, fire at Paris building

Issued on: 27/06/2023 – 16:12

Emergency services had been looking for a missing woman since the blast last Wednesday, but the source, who declined to be named, said the body was too charred to allow immediate identification.

Last week a source close to the search told AFP the missing person is a teacher at the Paris American Academy fashion school on the city’s touristy Left Bank.

Le Parisien newspaper said that she had been teaching at the Academy for 20 years and was on the third floor of the building at the time of the blast.

The cause of the blast is still unknown, but several eyewitnesses reported smelling gas in the minutes before the explosion.

The head of the Academy, Peter Carman, is among the worst hurt, Le Parisien said, after rushing to cut off the power supply when a smell of gas spread through the building.

The blast and subsequent fire just before 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Wednesday shook the busy Rue Saint-Jacques, demolishing the 17th-century building that was a listed historic monument.

According to prosecutors, 58 people were hurt in the blast, with four sustaining life threatening injuries.

Students were out at the time watching a Paris Fashion Week show, thereby preventing heavier casualties.

Paris prosecutors are investigating whether the blast was the result of failure to observe safety norms.

The search of the destroyed building was halted over the weekend while a neighbouring building, which was in danger of collapse, was stabilised.

(AFP)