Reuters – Several people were injured in a huge explosion probably caused by a gas leak in central Paris on Saturday (January 12), a police source said. Firefighters and emergency services surrounded the scene, where smoke continued to billow from a building.

The massive blast rocked buildings hundreds of metres away and blew out the entire ground floor of a building at rue Trevise, in the Grands Boulevards central Paris shopping district. Police said nine people were seriously injured.

Paris police are on high alert on a ninth consecutive Saturday of yellow vest protests, with large parts of the city centre blocked off by riot police.

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