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Huge fire destroys warehouse at giant Paris market

A major blaze swept through part of one of the world's biggest fresh produce markets on the outskirts of Paris on Sunday. 

Published: 26 September 2022 08:44 CEST
Huge fire destroys warehouse at giant Paris market
Smoke from the blaze at the Marche d'Interet National (MIN) in Rungis, greater Paris, could be seen from several kilometres away. Photo by Aurore MESENGE / AFP

 The fire destroyed a fruit and vegetable warehouse at the Rungis complex to the south of the French capital.

Flames spread shortly after noon, the authorities said, sending a dark plume of smoke billowing over the southern suburbs.

A hundred firefighters brought the fire under control by mid-afternoon and there were no injuries, the fire brigade said.

The warehouse, about the size of a football pitch, belonged to Les Halles Mandar group.

Firefighters work to put out a fire in a building at the “Rungis International Market” wholesale food market in Rungis, south of Paris. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

“It’s a shock, but we’re glad there were no injuries”, boss Shaoul Abramczyk said.

“We will not be able to fulfil our partners’ orders from Monday and for several days”, he added.

“When a market operator is the victim of a tragedy of this nature, the whole market is struck at its heart”, Rungis market head Stephane Layani said.
 

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PARIS

Paris takes down ads for ‘transphobic’ book

Posters promoting a book described as "transphobic" have been taken down in Paris after a top city official said the work amounted to hate speech.

Published: 18 April 2024 13:00 CEST
Paris takes down ads for 'transphobic' book

The controversy comes as Paris prepares to host the Olympics from July 26 to August 11.

French advertising firm JCDecaux late Wednesday told AFP the posters had been removed, and apologised to people who could have been hurt by them.

The poster promoted a book titled “Transmania” that describes itself as “an investigation into the extremes of transgender ideology” and the “harmful political project” behind it.

Kam Hugh, a drag queen who has appeared on French television, first alerted the mayor’s office to the existence of the “openly transphobic” poster on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night.

The account of the capital’s Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo responded, asking about the poster’s location.

In a letter to JCDecaux seen by AFP, first deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire asked the advertising firm to remove the series.

“Transphobia is an offence. Hate has no place in our city,” he wrote on X.

Dora Moutot, one of the book’s authors, said the book was not transphobic and denounced “censorship based on assumptions rather than an analysis of the contents” of the book.

She said she and co-author Marguerite Stern had interviewed trans people for it.

“It is a sourced investigation into puberty blockers and certain actors who push for gender transitions and make a profit from it,” she wrote on X.

She slammed what she called a “regression of public discourse and debate”, but thanked Hugh for the free advertising.

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