Some faces are tense when we invest this district of Vincennes (Val-de-Marne), but the provisional assessment only mentions a light injury. In view of the explosion heard this Tuesday around 5 p.m., it was announced to be much heavier. Part of a building under construction located at the corner of rue Defrance and rue Clément-Vienot has collapsed, said emergency services dispatched to the scene. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Claire Boet, spokesperson for the Paris fire brigade, more than 150 firefighters are mobilized. Fifteen vehicles were engaged.
While 56 workers were identified as being on site at the time of the collapse, the emergency services were able to ensure that all those identified were found safe and sound, the Val-de-Marne prefecture said in a press release on Tuesday. evening. So far, only one minor injury has been reported. Shortly after 8 p.m., some workers are still in the area, while the firefighters are preparing to return to the intervention area.
The search operation for possible victims will indeed continue in the evening, even this Wednesday morning, with the help of dogs in particular. Drones are also used to have the best view of this collapse. According to information collected on site, sections of walls threatening to collapse in turn must be secured.
“As if the interior of the building had been vacuumed”
“I was very scared thinking of an attack at the start,” says Justine Boulanger, a resident living in a nearby building. Decorative objects started shaking, some fell on the ground. Then I saw the tops of the building’s floors crumble as if the inside of the building had been sucked in. »
Another neighbor whose windows also overlook the construction site says he heard “a huge noise, I thought it was a crane that had collapsed. At the local café, another evokes “like the noise of a fighter plane” And full of dust, “a bit like September 11”. If her child left school long before the facts, the emotion is still present.
VIDEO. “I saw the walls fall”: a building under construction collapses in Vincennes
A few minutes pass and the details flow. “Two floors collapsed and the structure of the building was affected,” according to a police source. The town hall of Vincennes tells us that this building complex under construction should be delivered within a year and accommodate shops on the ground floor and 120 housing units. The area was immediately cordoned off and the prefecture of Val-de-Marne asked to “avoid the area”. Several photos circulating on social networks show completely destroyed facades.
The children from the Clément Viénot school and crèche, located nearby, were evacuated and brought to safety. A hundred were present at school at the time of the accident as part of extracurricular time.
The crèche will either be closed or relocated in the coming days, indicates the mayor (UDI) of Vincennes, Charlotte Libert-Albanel. “We will find solutions for Thursday or Friday. Parents will be informed, ”says the elected official, who salutes the rapid intervention of the firefighters and police. People who worked in offices adjoining the building were also evacuated and taken to shelter.
The town hall finally specifies that the nursery school normally hosted two polling stations next Sunday for the 1st round of the legislative. They will be transferred elsewhere in town.
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