Rescue workers on Monday recovered more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in France's Marseille, bringing the confirmed death toll to six, with others still missing.
More than 24 hours after an explosion at the building, where residents reported a strong smell of gas, dozens of civil defence staff and sniffer dogs were working through the debris, where a fire still smouldered.
The deputy mayor of the Mediterranean port city, Yannick Ohanessian, said Monday that rescue workers still hoped to find survivors.
But the fire under the rubble has made it hard for dogs to detect more victims or survivors.
Firefighter Adrien Schaller, who arrived on site at around 1am local time on Monday (11pm GMT Sunday), described the painstaking work to maximise the chances of finding survivors.
"The heart of the blaze is deep underneath and hard to reach with the hoses. And we can't spray too much water to avoid creating a sort of mud," he said.
'Race against the clock'
Rescue workers were clearing away most of the rubble with an excavator, Schaller said, stopping as soon as they spotted an air pocket to continue the work by hand.
"It's a race against the clock."
Five people in a neighbouring building sustained minor injuries in the blast and collapse, which occurred around 12:40am on Sunday.
While the cause of the explosion is still to be determined, several residents reported a strong smell of gas.
Saveria Mosnier, who lives on a street near the site in the neighbourhood of La Plaine, said she was sleeping when a "huge blast ... shook the room".
"I was shocked awake as if I had been dreaming," she told AFP. "We very quickly smelled a strong gas odour that hung around, we could still smell it this morning."
Deputy Mayor Ohanessian said several witnesses had reported "a suspicious smell of gas".
'Afraid'
Two buildings next to the destroyed property were severely damaged, with one collapsing later in the day without injuring any rescuers.
Almost 200 residents were evacuated from surrounding buildings.
The city provided some emergency shelter, and the local community also sprang into action to help coordinate housing and aid for them.
"A lot of families in the neighbourhood are afraid," said Arnaud Dupleix, the president of a parents' association at the nearby Tivoli elementary school.
In 2018, eight people were killed in Marseille when two dilapidated buildings in the working-class district of Noailles caved in.
That disaster cast a harsh light on the city's housing standards, with aid groups saying 40,000 people were living in shoddy structures.
But authorities on Sunday appeared to rule out structural issues in the latest collapse.
"There was no danger notice for this building, and it is not in a neighbourhood identified as having substandard housing," said Christophe Mirmand, prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône region.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
