An explosion sounded and started a fire in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, around 5 p.m., this Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Several people were injured and some are in absolute emergency. An investigation is opened to determine the origin of the disaster.
The explosion took place at 4:55 p.m., this Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in rue Saint-Jacques, at place Alphonse-Laveran, located in the fifth arrondissement of the capital. The explosion is said to have taken place in the building housing the Paris American Academy, a bilingual design school located at 277, rue Saint-Jacques, near Val-de-Grâce. “The facade has completely fallen,” a witness to the scene told BFMTV. A major fire broke out.
The explosion “immediately led to a violent fire”, confirmed the Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez. But the rapid intervention of firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to two other buildings. The buildings were still “weakened”. Before being contained, around 6:30 p.m., the fire however had time to spread to buildings neighboring the one where the explosion took place, according to the statements of the Prime Minister.
The origin of the explosion is not yet known, but a gas leak could be the cause of the explosion. “It smelled of gas in the street,” said a resident of the Parisian street to Liberation, while another reported the words of the firefighters: “Passersby told us that the firefighters had told them to move back, because they there was a second gas leak.” With franceinfo, a resident of the district indicated that “renovations of the gas columns had been made” in the sector recently.
The Paris prosecutor’s office nevertheless indicates that it is not aware of the origin of the explosion: “There is nothing to determine the origin of the incident at this stage.” An “unintentional injury” investigation has been opened to shed light on what happened. The regional directorate of the judicial police is in charge of the investigation.
The latest report communicated by the police headquarters shortly after 7:30 p.m. reported 29 people injured, including four in absolute emergency. Several of those injured are believed to be collateral victims who were not in the building, but were affected by the blast and flying debris.
The mayor of the capital’s 5th arrondissement, Florence Berthout, told Liberation that there were “no victims on the Val-de-Grâce site”. The Parisian hospital is indeed located a few meters from the site of the explosion.
