Up to eight feared dead in France after Marseille building collapse
- Officials said authorities were trying to trace five residents and three people who were visiting the buildings
As many as eight people might have died in the southern French city of Marseille in two building collapses, officials said on Tuesday. Three bodies were pulled out from the wreckage during the day – two men and a woman.
Rescuers worked throughout the night to look for victims in the rubble of two dilapidated blocks of flats which collapsed suddenly on Monday morning not far from the centre of the Mediterranean port city.
France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner arrived in Marseille on Tuesday.
“The most important is saving lives,” Castaner said at the scene. “During the first clearing operations we’ve found some pockets of air that means we still have some hope of finding and identifying a survivor.”
Castaner said 120 police officers and 80 firefighters took part in the rescue effort, working through the night in the pile of beams and rubble.
The first victim – a man – was pulled from the wreckage earlier on Tuesday, prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said, adding that he needed to be identified. A second body of a woman was found in the afternoon, followed by another male victim.