Much of the street still remains off limits four years after the disaster, and legal wrangling over the cause of the blast has held up millions of euros in compensation for the victims. The shock wave blew out scores of nearby windows, and dozens of evacuated families have yet to return to their homes as reconstruction work continues. In January 2019, a suspected leak in a buried gas pipe destroyed a building on the Rue de Trevise in the ninth arrondissement, killing four people including two firefighters. There have been several incidents of gas-related blasts in the French capital. The blast also caused extensive structural damage to two adjacent buildings, whose residents had to be evacuated. "Obviously we are counting on the victims to give us the first elements for investigating and understanding what happened," Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said at the scene. "Just when our accountant was dialling the emergency number" of the gas company, "the explosion occurred". "One of my colleagues noticed a strong gas smell and went outside to look," Philippe Delorme, the head of France's Catholic Education association, whose offices are adjacent to the collapsed building, told RMC radio on Thursday. The mayor of the fifth arrondissement said a gas explosion was behind the blast, and several witnesses told AFP they had smelled gas just before it occurred.īut officials said they did not yet have enough evidence to determine the cause of the blast with certainty. On Thursday, the security cordon had been reduced, allowing journalists and gawkers closer to the heap of rubble in front of the structure, just opposite the Val-de-Grace military hospital.Ī single fire hose was still sporadically spraying the remains of the building, while some of the nearby shops had reopened. Some 70 fire engines and 270 firefighters battled the blaze before it was contained. "The toll could have been higher," Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told FranceInfo radio. It sparked a major fire that caused the building - housing a private fashion school called the Paris American Academy - to collapse.Īccording to the mother of one of the students, writing on the school's Facebook account, the classrooms were empty at the time because students were attending a Paris Fashion Week show. The shockwave knocked out windows up to 400 metres (440 yards) away. We've had to put up plastic sheets because it's raining," she said. Everything shook," Violeta Garesteaw, a caretaker in a nearby building, told AFP on Thursday after sweeping up glass in the courtyard. The blast occurred on Wednesday afternoon in the city's fifth arrondissement, close to the Luxembourg Gardens and at the edge of the Latin Quarter, a top tourism area in the French capital. "The search continues for the second," it added, cautioning: "These figures could still change." "Among the two people who were being sought in the rubble, it turned out that one had already been admitted to hospital," the prosecutor's office said. "This was a heavily reckless act and it was a deliberate act in that you have admitted setting fire to that curtain.Prosecutors said around 50 people were injured in the explosion and building collapse on the Rue Saint Jacques street, potentially caused by a gas leak. "The other residents were seriously at risk while that fire was in process. Jailing Sheard for three years and four months, Judge Simon Phillips QC told him: "The outcome could have been different. Nicholas Hammond, mitigating, said his client was not getting help for his mental health difficulties and co-operated fully with the authorities since his arrest. The court heard there is evidence Sheard suffers from emotionally unstable personality disorder, attempted to overdose in December last year and has continuing mental health problems. He has 29 previous convictions for 49 offences, including violence, dishonesty and criminal damage. Sheard pleaded guilty to arson or being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Dealers 'flooding streets of Leeds with Spice' found with huge hoard of weapons, drugs and cash.The court heard £1,774.83 worth of the damage was caused to the flat. Sheard said he used three bucketfuls of water to extinguish the flames. In his interview, Sheard said he did not want or intend to endanger anybody's lives and it was only a cry for help because 'nobody cares'. When he was being arrested, he broke down crying and repeatedly said he could not believe what was happening. Shakespeare Grange in Burmantofts, east Leeds (Image: Google)
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