On Wednesday, a bombing in the crowded Latin Quarter of downtown Paris tore through a street, forcing the facade of a design school that was well-liked by international students to fall, shattering windows and igniting a massive fire.
Police reported that at least 16 individuals were hurt, including seven who are in severe condition.
It is still too early to determine what caused the incident, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Nevertheless, the local deputy mayor, Edouard Civel, mentioned a gas explosion in a tweet, and witnesses told BFM TV that there was a strong gas odour before to the explosion.
Television images showed rubble from the Paris American Academy strewn across the Rue Saint-Jacques and smoke rising from at least two nearby buildings that were ablaze.
“I heard a huge explosion,” local bar employee Khal Ilsey said. “And as I was leaving the restaurant, I saw flames at the end of Rue Saint-Jacques.”
The blast occurred at 4.55 pm local time (1455 GMT), just as workers were heading home.
More than 200 firefighters were involved in the emergency response. TV images showed firefighters manning hoses and aiming jets of water at the blaze while a plume of thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said later that the blaze had been brought under control.
Rue Saint-Jacques in the 5th arrondissement of central Paris leads from the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral to the Sorbonne University and the Val de Grace military hospital and is a few blocks from the popular Jardin du Luxembourg.
The area is usually packed with tourists and foreign students in the early summer.
“I was at home writing…I thought it was a bomb,” said art historian Monique Mosser, adding that many of the windows in her building had been blown out by the blast’s shockwave.
“A neighbour knocked on the door and told me that the fire brigade were asking us to evacuate as quickly as possible. I grabbed my laptop, my phone. I didn’t even think to take get my medication.”
In 2019, a gas leak caused an explosion which killed 4 people and injured 66 in the 9th arrondissement. In April 2019, a fire broke out in the Notre-Dame Cathedral, destroying much of the roof and causing other damage before it was extinguished.