PARIS
\nFrench rescuers scoured the rubble for a missing person on Thursday, a day after a blast ripped through a building in central Paris, leaving four seriously injured.
\nOn Wednesday afternoon an explosion tore through a building on Saint-Jacques Street in the 5th district, close to the Luxembourg Gardens and at the edge of the Latin Quarter, a top tourism area in the French capital.
\nThe blast left four people seriously injured, while 33 others sustained lesser injuries, according to police.
\n\u201cThe search is continuing,\u201d police said on Thursday, saying rescuers were looking for one person still not accounted for \u2013 down from two earlier Thursday morning.
\nThe blast blew out windows up to 400 meters (yards) away, and was followed by a major fire which caused the building, housing a fashion school, to collapse.
\nSome 70 fire trucks and 270 firefighters battled the blaze before it was contained.
\nEarly Thursday, the security cordon had been reduced, allowing journalists and gawkers closer to the heap of rubble in front of the structure.
\nA single fire hose was still spraying the remains of the building now and then, while some shops had reopened on the street of the blast.
\nThe mayor of the 5th district said a gas explosion was behind the collapse, but this has not yet been confirmed by other officials.
\nSome witnesses spoken to by AFP reported noticing a strong smell of gas in the street before the explosion, but officials said they did not have enough evidence to determine the cause of the blast with certainty.
\nAn investigation into the causes was launched immediately, prosecutors said.
\nThere have been several incidents of gas-related blasts in the French capital.
\nIn January 2019, a suspected leak in a buried gas pipe destroyed a building on the Rue de Trevise in the ninth district, killing four people including two firefighters.
\nThe shockwave blew out scores of nearby windows, and dozens of families were forced to evacuate their homes for months.
\nMuch of the street still remains off limits four years after the disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS French rescuers scoured the rubble for a missing person on Thursday, a day after a blast ripped through a building in central Paris, leaving four seriously injured. On Wednesday afternoon an explosion tore through a building on Saint-Jacques Street in the 5th district, close to the Luxembourg Gardens and at the edge of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-339441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n