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Rescue operation continues after Paris building blast

01 September 2014 20:41 (UTC +04:00)

The explosion happened at around 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Sunday, leaving seven people dead and 11 others injured.

Rescue workers are currently scrambling against time to find one last person still missing.

“Time is not on our side,” said Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for Paris firefighters, adding, “But as long as all the missing people have not been found, we'll keep the operation going.”

However, local prefect Philippe Galli underlined that the chances of finding a survivor were “very, very small”, adding that all the potential air pockets have been explored and the rubble is “extremely compact.”

Galli said a woman in her 80s who lived on the first floor was buried under the debris after the four-storey residential block in the Paris suburb of Rosny-ous-Bois collapsed.

In addition to the octogenarian, the disaster has also killed a 40-year-old mother and her two children aged 14 and 18, together with a 10-year-old child, a 45-year-old woman and another adult who has not been identified formally yet.

Rescue workers had sifted through the rubble through the night with floodlights in the hope of finding anyone else alive.

Based on early indications, the disaster was an accidental gas explosion. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited the scene, and police also initially pointed to a gas leak as a likely cause of the explosion.