MARSEILLE - An apartment building collapsed in an apparent explosion Sunday in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille, injuring five people, with authorities warning up to 10 victims could be under the burning rubble. “Everything shook, you could see people running and there was smoke everywhere, the building fell onto the street,” local grocer Aziz told AFP, asking that his family name not be used. “We have to be prepared to have fatalities in this terrible tragedy,” Marseille mayor Benoit Payan told journalists at the scene in the central La Plaine district, where over 100 firefighters were battling an hours-long blaze.
It is unclear how many people were inside the fallen block -- believed to have one apartment on each floor -- at the time of the collapse at around 12:40 am (2240 GMT).