Paris bakery blast: 4 dead, including 2 firefighters

Jan 12 (AZINS) France's interior minister says that four people have been killed, including two firefighters, and 47 have been injured in the blast at a bakery that was apparently caused by a gas leak in central Paris.Christophe Castaner told reporters at the scene "unfortunately the human toll is particularly serious."

He said 10 people are in critical condition and 37 others less seriously injured.He paid homage to the courage of rescuers who saved the life of one firefighter who was buried under the rubble for two and a half hours.Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was also at the scene, extended a "message of affection and solidarity" to the victims.

Police were on high alert in the French capital for a ninth consecutive Saturday of "yellow vest" protests, with large parts of the city centre blocked off by riot police. In recent years France has suffered jihadist militant attacks in Paris, Nice, Marseille and beyond. But the Paris prosecutor Remi Heitz was quick to rule out foul play.

"We still need to determine the circumstances and cause of the explosion but at this stage we can say it is clearly an accident, presumably a gas leak," he told reporters. A police source said the explosion tore apart a bakery on the rue Trevise in the Grands Boulevards district. The force of the blast shattered nearby storefronts and rocked buildings hundreds of metres away, witnesses said.

More than 200 firefighters joined the rescue operation and two helicopters landed on the nearby Place de l'Opera to evacuate victims. "The situation is now under control," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters on the scene.

An eyewitness at a hotel nearby said he saw a huge fire erupt in the building blown out by the blast."There was broken glass everywhere, storefronts were blown out and windows were shattered up to the third and fourth floors," said 38-year-old David Bangura.He said that as he approached the scene, a woman was crying for help from the first floor of a building: "Help us, help us, we have a child".