April 9 (UPI) — Two bodies have been found in the rubble of a building that collapsed Sunday due to an explosion in the French city of Marseille, authorities said, as rescue efforts continued for several people still unaccounted for.
The explosion occurred just after midnight on Sunday, reducing the apartment complex on Tivoli St. to flaming rubble, through which responders searched for missing people, with two bodies found by firefighters early Monday.
“Given the particular difficulties of intervention, extraction [of the bodies] will take time,” the local fire department said in a statement, France Bleu reported.
The discovery of the bodies followed Marseille Prosecutor Dominique Laurens informing reporters during a Sunday evening press conference that eight people were missing.
The city said in a statement that 199 people were evacuated from 33 nearby buildings and 100 firefighters responded to battle the blaze. The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Hours following the explosion, two other buildings in the vicinity experienced partial collapses, officials said.
Benoit Payan, mayor of Marseille, tweeted that first responders have been on the scene for nearly 24 hours.
“This evening, all the teams remain mobilized and determined to help and find people alive,” Payan tweeted. “Thank you to our @MarinsPompiers, police and municipal officers who have been working tirelessly for almost 24 hours. Hope must hold us.”
Marseille experienced the collapse of two buildings in 2018, which left at least six dead. The two adjacent buildings collapsed within hours of each other. One of the buildings was boarded up but officials believed it was possible there were people inside.
The buildings that collapsed in 2018 were viewed as a result of structural issues that plagued many older buildings in low-income neighborhoods, The New York Times reports.
“Emotion with Marseille, where a building on rue Tivoli collapsed last night,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted. “I am thinking of those affected and their loved ones. Research is continuing with significant resources deployed. Thank you to the firefighters and rescuers mobilized.”