AUTHORITIES alleged a fire sparked by an unexplained explosion in southern France killed seven people overnight from Sunday to Monday, including two children.
Residents in the small seaside town of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Perpignan, reported hearing a blast around 1:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) that set buildings on fire on both sides of a street.
“I heard a very loud explosion, then I saw huge flames,” said neighbour Nadine Bret, 59.
“The buildings were ravaged by the flames. It was total panic.”
Yesterday, she said, construction work was going on in a fast-food restaurant on the ground floor of one of the buildings.
Today, firefighters searched two small blocks of flats for potential victims of the fire, which had been rendered unstable by the blaze’s devastation.
After leaping from a second-story window to escape the fire, a guy in his 30s was brought to the hospital in critical condition.
However, prosecutors stated they have launched an investigation into the cause of the explosion.
