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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police reported that at least 16 individuals were hurt, including seven who are in severe condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is still too early to determine what caused the incident, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blast occurred at 4.55 pm local time (1455 GMT), just as workers were heading home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said later that the blaze had been brought under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The area is usually packed with tourists and foreign students in the early summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,43,45,48],"tags":[9,140,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-4642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-top-stories","10":"category-world","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-paris","13":"tag-world"},"yoast_head":"\n