Paris explosion leaves 29 injured, two missing

Seven people are in a critical condition after a huge explosion in central Paris caused several buildings to set on fire and prompted an evacuation in the Left Bank.

Two people are feared to be trapped in the rubble in the accident which has injured at least 29 people, some seriously.

More than 200 firefighters are attempting to extinguish the fire which sent a plume of black smoke across the French capital.

One woman named only as Raphaëlle, who lives opposite the collapsed building,

Speculation says the explosion occurred following a gas accident in the fifth arrondissement.

But Paris police spokeswoman Loubna Atta said it was too early to determine the source of the fire and could not confirm reports it was caused by a gas explosion.

Florence Berthout, mayor of the arrondissement, said people were in an “absolute emergency” condition.

“The explosion was extremely violent”, she said, describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.

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French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed the fire on Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris’ fifth arrondissement, close to the Jardin Du Luxembourg and Sorbonne University.

Achille, a student, said he was in a building about 100 meters (yards) from the explosion.

“I was sitting on the windowsill, and we moved 2 meters away from the window, carried by a small blast (from the explosion) and huge fear,” he 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.”

While public health researcher Loïc Josseran said there was “an extremely violent noise which made the windows vibrate strongly.”

French news channel BFM TV showed fire services trying to hose down a building and journalist Olivier Galzi told the channel that he had seen the facade of a nearby building “completely collapse”.