Two buildings collapse in the center of Lille, inhabitants evacuated, one missing potential victim

Firefighters are looking for a missing doctor after the collapse on Saturday morning of two small adjoining buildings in a shopping street in the center of Lille, most of whose inhabitants were able to be evacuated thanks to the alert launched by the one of them at night.

Several media had initially indicated that there were "a priori" no victims, before the firefighters announced that they were looking for this "potential victim".

"We are almost certain that this person is in the rubble," said Lieutenant-Colonel Stéphane Beauventre. "His phone is not answering, his car is in the parking lot, (...) and he has not taken his penalty."

"We are concentrating all our efforts on (...) extracting the rubble by hand to access this victim," he added.

Another person, slightly injured, was extracted from the rubble, said the departmental fire and rescue service of the North.
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*At first the collapses did not appear to have caused any casualties. The homes were evacuated during the night as a precautionary measure after a resident warned that one of the walls was "warped," police said.*