Six killed in Marseille building collapse after ‘gas blast’

A fire engine is parked in a street near the scene where a building collapsed in Marseille (Bishr El Touni/AP)

French investigators are treating the deaths of at least six people who were killed when a building collapsed in Marseille as an “involuntary homicide” caused by a gas explosion, a prosecutor said.

Dominique Laurens said an investigation was opened on that basis after the first body was found in the building, which collapsed in an explosion early on Sunday.