France: Lille building collapses following lucky evacuation

PARIS (AP) — French authorities said a building collapsed Saturday morning in northern France’s city of Lille and no one was reported injured thanks to a local resident’s advance warning.

The building in the center of the city was evacuated during the night after a man coming back from a night out saw cracks appearing in the structure and reported the issue to emergency services, the Lille prefecture said.

The fire service responded and created a cordon around the “zone of peril,” the prefecture said. The building was divided into commercial and residential parts.

Lille Mayor Martine Aubry told French broadcaster BFM TV that the man’s actions saved lives. Authorities have not named him.

“I am still shaking because if this gentleman hadn’t come home at 3 a.m. and contacted us, we wouldn’t have had this reaction and, well, there would have obviously been deaths,” she said.

“He then warned the municipal police and the firefighters, who decided to evacuate the building, believing that there was a real risk,” Aubry said.

Searches continued Saturday to confirm there were no casualties before an investigation begins into why the building collapsed.

In 2018, two dilapidated buildings collapsed in the southern city of Marseille, killing eight people and triggering harsh criticism of local authorities and the French government.

France’s interior minister at the time, Christophe Castaner, responded by ordering a citywide building-by-building audit as well as a program to guarantee safer conditions.