What is known about the collapse of three buildings in Marseille

There is little hope of finding people in the rubble. Two apartment buildings collapsed, Monday, November 5, in the morning, in the city center of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhone). A third, weakened, fell in the late afternoon. The firefighters spent the night looking for possible victims in the rubble of the buildings: "five to eight victims" could still be buried, according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.

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What happened ?

Two buildings of four and five floors, located at 63 and 65 rue d'Aubagne, collapsed, in the district of Noailles, in the 1st arrondissement, in Marseille, around 9 am, Monday morning. "I live next door, I was watching TV when I heard a loud noise, but no explosion, then a cloud of smoke"Antonio Dias, 30, tells AFP.

Another neighbor, Sofia Benameur, also heard a noise "who made 'badaboum, badaboum' like stones". "The building collapsed in one block in a few seconds, I did not hear the sound of an explosion"says Djaffar Nour, who was shopping a few tens of meters from collapsed buildings.

Soon after, the rescuers supported two pbadersby slightly injured. And the relief workers then worked "hard to know if individuals [étaient] stuck " under the rubble, in "survival pockets where they could have taken refuge"said the housing minister, Julien Denormandie, in the afternoon.

In the early evening, a third building, located at number 67, partially collapsed. "We decided to intervene with an excavator to remove the cracked part.The wall started to fall alone at the beginning then (…) fell at once"said Admiral Charles-Henri Garié, who commands the Marseilles firefighters. This third building had been abandoned and walled since the summer of 2012.

Are there any victims?

Rescuers discovered Tuesday morning the body of a man who died under the rubble, told the press the prosecutor of the Republic, Xavier Tarabeux. Forensic examinations would be practiced to identify the person.

The prosecutor also explained that "there was finally "No casualties on this sidewalk, it's good news". On Monday, two pbaders-by had been filmed in front of the buildings just before they collapsed, and the authorities feared they had been buried. "Five to eight victims" in total could still be buried under the rubble of both buildings, cleared "Meticulously", "shovel" according to the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castanter, present in Marseille since Monday night.

Were the buildings old?

One of the two buildings, number 63, was "closed and walled", according to the Marseille city council, who had bought it after taking a peril in 2008. But he was "fully secure"badured the Deputy Mayor in charge of housing, Arlette Fructus. At number 65, nine apartments out of ten, on the other hand, were inhabited, above a vacant ground floor business, according to firefighters. In co-ownership, it had been the object on October 18th "an expertise of the competent services which had given rise to the realization of work of comfort allowing the reintegration of the occupants"badured the mayor of Marseille. The third building, at number 67, which collapsed in the evening, had been abandoned and walled since summer 2012.

"This dramatic accident could be due to the heavy rains that have fallen on Marseille in recent days"according to the town hall, which had to relocate 100 evacuees in the buildings nearby. But several representatives of the opposition made the link with the extent of the problem of unworthy housing in Marseille, especially in the center.

"Behind the idyllic postcard, we once again measure the failures of housing policy and downtown"said Senator PS Samia Ghali. "These are the houses of the poor who fall and it is not a coincidence", thundered Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of insubordinate France and MP for Bouches-du-Rhône, regretting "a funny smell of carelessness and indifference to poverty".

Since 2011, the city council has been engaged in a vast redevelopment plan for the city center, but without really being able to remedy the problem. The city is particularly concerned: according to a report submitted to the government in 2015, unworthy housing threatens the health or safety of "100,000 inhabitants" from the city.