Nantes, on Saturday morning. At 7: 45 PM, passers-by saw in the heart of France’s sixth largest city, behind the Central facade window of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul flames blaze. The fire brigade was quickly on the spot: 104 fire-fighters, with 45 vehicles moved in and with two hollow-beam tubes are armed, pushed back the flames within two hours.
some 24 hours later, the Prosecutor announced that a man was taken into custody. He was a volunteer who had worked in the diocese, reported the news platform France info on Sunday, citing the public Prosecutor of Nantes, Pierre Sennès. He had been for the closure of the Cathedral on Friday evening was responsible, which is why the investigators “wanted to clarify certain aspects of his daily routine,” said Prosecutor Sennès to the AFP news Agency on Sunday. Statements as to whether the man had been in the suspected arson involved, however, “premature”, – he stressed.
Sennès, was launched on Saturday a criminal investigation for arson. There are three spatially separate foci: the main organ above the Central Portal, as well as on the ground floor to the left and to the right of the transept-placed altar. This was no coincidence, but the “signature” of an intentionally caused fire.
Later, however, he was sheepish and admitted, you have to go to each track. So I am asked to the Residents of the Cathedral square and the video monitoring in the environment is evaluated, but also the electrical wiring of the Church under the magnifying glass taken. With this latter task, an expert of the Paris police was entrusted.
fabric of the building remains intact
According to a provisional damage balance of the main organ, the about this description stained glass window and a painting by the neoclassical Church of the painter Hippolyte Flandrin, fell victim to the fire. A comparison to the great fire of Notre-Dame de Paris is not to pull: unlike in the case of this, where on 15. April 2019 flames from crossing had attacked storm on the wooden roof over the buildings here are intact; a General danger of collapse does not appear to exist. Concern is the vaulted gallery, which carried the organ prepares only: This is the commander, according to the fire Department as “very unstable and could collapse”.
France’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Jean Castex, Minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, and culture Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, went on Saturday to Nantes at the place of action. The latter stated that as a resident of the Region of Pays de la Loire, Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul had been “their” Cathedral. “I’m in tears… in particular, the destruction of an organ is like a stab in the heart.”
