Emergency services are at work early, Saturday March 9, in the center of Toulouse. They want to ensure that no victim is trapped in the rubble of a building which collapsed during the night from Friday to Saturday, but which had previously been emptied of its occupants, firefighters said.
Around fifty firefighters are on site, accompanied by dog teams. They evacuated, during the night, twenty-three people living in adjoining buildings, the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) of Haute-Garonne told the press.
This three-story building on rue Saint-Rome, three blocks from the famous Toulouse Capitol, was evacuated on Tuesday following a first “collapse of an interior wall”, the SDIS then announced.
“Major crack”
After this immediate evacuation of residents, a “significant crack” was detected by “building risk specialists”, and it was initially planned that the building would benefit from shoring carried out by a private company, according to the same source. , Tuesday.
This busy commercial artery in downtown Toulouse has been cut off since Tuesday around the building in question, causing concern among traders.
The debris from the damaged building – rubble, metal pipes and personal effects – flowed into the adjacent street in a spectacular way, an Agence France-Presse photographer noted on site. Firefighters had to evacuate neighbors using ladders.
This collapse occurred while the Toulouse metropolitan area was mourned on Monday by the collapse of a viaduct under construction of the metro where a worker died and two others were seriously injured.
