SHOCKING SCENES
AT least 37 people have been injured after a gas explosion in central Paris - with two feared missing among the rubble.
The violent blast happened in the Val-de-Grâce neighbourhood in the French capital near the Senate, a city official said.
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The blast took place in a building that was the base for a design school and the Catholic education system headquarters in Rue Saint-Jacques, in the fifth arrondissement.
Some 37 people have been injured, four of which are fighting for their lives.
Emergency workers have been searching through the wreckage of the building, with at least two thought to be missing.
Pictures showed huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky above the city.
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Footage showed a collapsed building engulfed in flames as burning debris drops into the street below.
A police official said the front of the building collapsed onto the street after the huge explosion.
Cops have urged the public to avoid the area.
Officials from the 5th arrondissement attributed the blast and blaze to a gas leak.
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District Mayor Florence Berthout said: “The explosion was extremely violent,” describing pieces of glass still falling from buildings.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed firefighters were battling a blaze on Rue Saint-Jacques - close to the Jardin Du Luxembourg and Sorbonne University.
A student at Ecole des Mines on Boulevard Saint-Michel told Le Parisien: "I was in front of the Val de Grâce, I heard a huge boom and I saw a ball of fire 20 or 30m high.
"And the building collapsed with a huge noise. I smelled gas, but took several minutes to come to my senses."
Antoine Brouchot, told the he was at home when he heard a "big explosion".
"I stuck my head out of the window and looked towards Cochin [hospital], then I saw a big cloud of smoke and as I got closer, there was a building that had collapsed and for the moment, there is a fire."
Some 270 firefighters were involved in putting out the flames and 70 emergency vehicles were on the scene.
A student at the private school said he was in a building about 100 meters (yards) from the explosion.
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“I was sitting on the windowsill, and we moved 2 meters away from the window, carried by a small blast (from the explosion) and huge fear,” Achille, whose last name was not given, told BFM television.
“We came down (from the building) and saw the flames,” he said. “The police gave us great support and we evacuated quickly.”
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