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MARSEILLE

Two still missing as Marseille building collapse probe begins

Rescuers were on Tuesday searching rubble in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille for two people still missing after a deadly building collapse two days before, as investigators began work to ascertain the cause of the blast that brought it down.

Published: 11 April 2023 11:58 CEST
Two still missing as Marseille building collapse probe begins
Firefighters stand aside as an excavator clears rubble at 'rue Tivoli' after a building collapsed in the street, in Marseille, southern France, on April 9, 2023. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP)

They have so far recovered the remains of six people known to have been in the four-storey apartment block when it was destroyed in the early hours of Sunday.

The explosion shook the whole Camas neighbourhood, a few hundred metres from Marseille’s historic old port.

“The toll is unchanged and operations are continuing,” a fire service spokesman told AFP on the scene early on Tuesday.

Five women and three men, most aged between 66 and 89 but including a couple aged 29 and 31, are known to have been in the building when it fell.

“It would be a miracle to find any survivors but we have faith,” said a priest, Father Olivier, at a Monday prayer vigil in the nearby  Saint Michel church.

Police forensics experts are working to identify the bodies retrieved so far.

But eyes are now turning to possible causes for the overnight blast, with many witnesses recalling smelling gas around the time of the explosion.

As well as 22 forensics officers, 18 detectives are on the scene sifting for evidence. Authorities are yet to give any preferred theory of what happened.

Meanwhile, around 200 people evacuated from the neighbourhood face an uncertain wait before they are allowed to return to  their homes.

One building adjoining the fallen block largely collapsed a few hours later, while the structure on the other side was weakened and risks falling in turn.

Other houses on the street may have suffered less visible damage, meaning they have to be torn down, Marseille’s deputy mayor for security, Yannick Ohanessian, said on Monday.

Some residents were allowed to return briefly on Tuesday to recover vital items from their homes, given just a few minutes to choose between important papers, clothes, medicines or a bicycle for the daily commute.

“The worst thing is not knowing how long it’s going to be. I’m most worried not to know where I’ll be living, whether I’ll need to find a new apartment,” said Alhil Villalba, 33.

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CRIME

Marseille district sees weary but wary relief in drug crackdown

French police have flooded the troubled Marseille district of La Castellane with forces since a crackdown on the drug trade started last month, and one mother told how she feels safer, for now at least.

Published: 11 April 2024 08:38 CEST
Marseille district sees weary but wary relief in drug crackdown

Before, drug dealers would hang around the housing estate, and up the road some had set up a roadblock of shopping carts and wooden pallets to keep authorities out.

“They took the carts and palets away. Now you no longer hear the shouting, the young guys loitering,” the woman said outside her son’s school, refusing to give her name for fear of reprisals.

“It’s a relief, especially for my 10-year-old son,” the woman added, standing at the foot of huge white housing blocks in La Castellane.

“He looks older, so the guys would always call him over on his way to school,” she said. “I was terrified they would recruit him.”

President Emmanuel Macron last month announced an “XXL” cleanup of drug trafficking in the southern port city and other towns across France where the lucrative drugs trade has caused death and uncertainty.

Turf wars for control of Marseille’s drug dealing left 49 people dead last year. Four were innocent bystanders.

Residents of La Castellane and La Paternelle, two of the worst-hit districts, say they are relieved by the clampdown.

But many fear insecurity will return when police leave. Almost all refused to give their names out of fear for their safety.

‘PR stunt’

In La Castellane, a father watched his two boys play near a mural of football superstar Zinedine Zidane, who was born in the district.

“It’s been calmer for three weeks,” he said, before hastily adding: “Drug dealers are none of my business.”

Sitting with friends outside a shop, another young man in a baseball cap said he was unimpressed.

“They came here to ‘clean up’, but those suffering the most are residents being slapped with fines” for car offences, he said.

“If you see someone selling hash, you walk away, that’s it,” he added.

“There are more worrying things here — the dirtiness, the rats.”

Among a dozen police officers at the entrance to the neighbourhood, one said certain residents would be unhappy because “some lived from” the drug trade.

Another said the clean-up had pushed dealers “elsewhere” or onto social media to make sales. Police say they have arrested around 850 people.

Authorities have promised to maintain pressure on gangs, but they will also be busy securing the city for the arrival of the Olympic torch on March 8 as part of a nationwide tour before the Paris Games this year.

One investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the clean-up operation was “a PR stunt”.

“It looks good to… deploy some blue uniforms. You can see it… calm has returned for the moment,” the investigator said.

“But it needs to be non-stop. And there needs to be a return to the basics… re-opening police stations in the housing estates — not just crackdowns.”

‘Nothing here’

In La Paternelle, four dealing points that once generated €200,000 a day have disappeared since January as part of a police crackdown before Macron’s announcement.

On the orange walls of a small apartment building, “menus” once advertising drugs for sale have been erased.

Just the word “Yoda” acts as a reminder of the gang that once fought for control of the area against its rival “DZ Mafia”. That caused many of the drug-related deaths in the city.

Onissa, a resident who said she had lived in the neighbourhood for 24 years, said the neighbourhood was getting more sleep.

“No one wakes up in the middle of the night anymore,” she said. “But we still are still wary.”

Many people have scars from Marseille’s drug battles. Onissa said she would never forget her son’s face after he saw a 35-year-old shot dead below their flat in May last year.

Not far off, two elderly women sat in the sun at the foot of an apartment block.

They recalled armed men in balaclavas suddenly appearing one afternoon in the middle of a children’s playground.

One of the women sat on her walking frame in a space where youth gang members once burnt wooden pallets.

But she said she wished there were children’s games on the nearby grass.

The owner of the only shop on the housing estate agreed. “A little life is coming back, but there is nothing here,” he said.

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