A massive fire broke out in the heart of Paris on Wednesday afternoon, following a powerful explosion that rocked a busy street in the Latin Quarter. The blast caused the facade of a design school to collapse and damaged several other buildings nearby. At least 16 people were injured, seven of them critically.
The explosion occurred around 5 pm local time at the Paris American Academy, a bilingual school of fashion and design located on Rue Saint-Jacques, a historic street that leads from the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral to the Sorbonne University and the Val-de-Grâce military hospital. The area is usually crowded with tourists and foreign students in the early summer.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang and seeing a ball of fire before smoke filled the air. Some said they smelled gas before the blast, suggesting a possible gas leak as the cause of the incident. However, the Paris prosecutor’s office said it was too early to determine what triggered the fire and could not confirm any gas explosion.
More than 200 firefighters rushed to the scene to battle the blaze, which was brought under control after several hours. Police cordoned off the area and evacuated residents and bystanders. TV footage showed rubble from the collapsed building strewn across the street and flames engulfing nearby structures.
“I heard a huge explosion,” said Khal Ilsey, who works at a local bar. “And as I was leaving the restaurant, I saw flames at the end of Rue Saint-Jacques.”
“I was at home writing…I thought it was a bomb,” said Monique Mosser, an art historian whose windows were shattered by the shockwave. “A neighbor 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.”
The incident comes as Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with his strategic team ahead of the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris, France. The summit, slated for June 22nd and 23rd, will bring together world leaders to discuss how to support and invest in vulnerable countries affected by climate change, energy crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic.
Tinubu will join other leaders to review and sign a new global financial pact that prioritizes these countries for assistance and cooperation. It is not clear if the explosion will have any impact on the summit or Tinubu’s participation.
This is not the first time Paris has witnessed such a devastating fire in recent years. In 2019, a gas leak caused an explosion that killed four people and injured 66 in the 9th arrondissement. In April 2019, a fire broke out in the Notre-Dame Cathedral, destroying much of its roof and causing other damage before it was extinguished.
