(Marseille) Nearly four days after the collapse of a building in Marseille, the bodies of the last two missing have been found and the eight victims have now been identified, the Marseille prosecutor’s office announced in a press release on Wednesday.
Among the four new victims identified are a couple in their thirties and another in their eighties, specifies the prosecution, which still favors “the hypothesis of an explosion due to the gas having caused the collapse of the building”.
Marion Blox, 31, and her companion Michael Lequeux, 28, lived on the second floor of the building at 17 rue de Tivoli blown up by an explosion on Sunday at 12:46 a.m., in the Camas district, in the heart of Marseille. According to the daily La Provence, she worked for the global shipping giant CMA-CGM, and he at Kedge business school.
The last two victims identified are Anna Sinapi and Jacky Morand, aged 85 and 81 respectively. They lived in the downstairs apartment.
“The final toll is eight people who died”, i.e. all the inhabitants of this building, said the Marseille prosecutor’s office in its press release.
The first four victims identified, and this since Tuesday, were Nicole Gacon, 65, who lived on the ground floor, in an apartment between 17 and 15 rue; Antoinietta (BIEN Antoinietta) Alaimo, married Vaccaro, 88, who lived on the 1st floor; and finally Jacques Praxy and Anne-Marie Praxy, née Genovesi, both 74, who resided on the 3rd floor.
In its press release late Wednesday afternoon, the Marseille prosecutor’s office also confirmed the complaint against X filed by Bruno Sinapi, Ms. Sinapi’s son, for manslaughter.
In a testimony collected by France 2, he had specifically accused Ms. Vaccaro, his parents’ neighbor, assuring that this lady “lost her head” and “had recurring problems with gas”. In his testimony, he also questioned the social services, which, warned, would not have done anything about the gas, according to him.
According to the prosecution, “the elements, all converging, collected at this stage of the investigation confirm the hypothesis of an explosion due to the gas having caused the collapse of the building”, in which neither the services of GRDF nor the Marseille firefighters did not “carry out an intervention in the six months preceding this event”.
“The mechanism that led to this explosion will remain to be determined following investigations and expert appraisals which will necessarily be long and complex,” the statement added.
As for the exploitation of the gas meters found in the rubble, in particular that of Mrs. Vaccaro, it is still in progress. Only the apartments on the ground floor and first floor were still connected to gas, said the public prosecutor of Marseille on Tuesday.
