Paris explosion: Strong blast injures 24 in French capital’s Left Bank

Firemen fight a blaze on Paris' Left Bank after an explosion collapsed the front of a building, injuring at least 24. Photo / Christophe Ena, AP

A strong explosion hit a building in Paris’ Left Bank on Wednesday, leaving 24 injured and igniting a fire that sent smoke soaring over city monuments and prompted the evacuation of surrounding buildings, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately known.

The facade of a building in the 5th arrondissement, or district, collapsed, and emergency services were working to determine if anyone was still inside, a Paris police official said. The explosion happened near the historic Val de Grace military hospital.

Firemen at a blaze on Paris' Left Bank that prompted the evacuation of buildings in the neighbourhood. Photo / AP

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said the building where the explosion occurred was a private school, the Paris American Academy, which was founded in 1965 and offers teaching in fashion design, interior design, fine arts, and creative writing.

The fire was contained but not yet extinguished. Some 270 firefighters were involved in putting out the flames and 70 emergency vehicles were on the scene.

A Paris police official told the Associated Press that 24 people were injured, including four in critical condition and 20 with less severe injuries. The official says the injuries were sustained mainly when people were blown off their feet by the blast.

Officials from the 5th arrondissement attributed the blast and blaze to a gas leak.

Police officers and rescue workers work at the site of a fire in Paris' Left Bank. Photo / Christophe Ena, AP

District Mayor Florence Berthout said, “The explosion was extremely violent,” describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.

The Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said an investigation would examine whether the explosion stemmed from a suspected violation of safety rules.

Nunez, the Paris police chief, said firefighters prevented the fire from igniting two neighbouring buildings that were “seriously destabilised” by the explosion and evacuated. The explosion blew out several windows in the area, witnesses and the police chief said.

Firemen use a water canon to fight a blaze after a large explosion and part of a building collapse in Paris. Photo / AP

Smoke was no longer visibly rising from the building by Wednesday evening. Sirens still wailed as ambulances passed through the neighborhood, but residents were starting to move freely again on the street, rue Saint-Jacques, which was cordoned off earlier.

A student at the private school said he was in a building about 100m from the explosion.

“I was sitting on the windowsill, and we moved 2 metres away from the window, carried by a small blast [from the explosion] and huge fear,” Achille, whose last name was not given, told BFM television.

“We came down [from the building] and saw the flames,” he said. “The police gave us great support and we evacuated quickly.”

With more than 2 million people densely packed within the city limits and historic, sometimes ageing, infrastructure, Paris is not a stranger to gas explosions. A January 2019 blast in the 9th district killed four people and left dozens injured.