Another cathedral is on fire in France, just a few months before Paris’ Notre-Dame is due to reopen after being ravaged by flames five years ago.
Rouen Cathedral – famous for its three towers, each in a different style – has been engulfed in flames.
The spire of the historic building in Normandy is shown on fire in footage shared online.
‘A fire has started on the spire of Rouen Cathedral. Origin unknown at this stage. All public resources are mobilised,’ wrote the mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol on X.
The cathedral has since been evacuated and emergency services have arrived on-site, according to regional officials.
It is understood that flames broke out in a section where building works had been taking place.
Conspiracy theories about the fate of the Rouen Cathedral have been spreading on social media as it is not the first time it has caught alight.
Its famous spire, one of the tallest in Europe, was installed in 1876 to replace the previous one, which was also destroyed in a fire back in 1822.
For the French, such incidents are close to their hearts after a structural fire broke out in the roof space of Notre-Dame de Paris.
The medieval Catholic cathedral – emblematic for the capital – has since been shut for renovations, with the plan to finally reopen in December.
A similar incident as the one in Rouen also took place in the Palace of Versailles – exactly one month ago, on June 11.
The fire in the 17th century building forced the evacuation of visitors from one of France’s busiest tourist sites before it was brought under control.
Looking into the history of incidents at the Rouen Cathedral, a replacement spire was made entirely out of cast iron after the first fire.
But it soon proved to unsuitable in the long term – government officials said the material ‘proves to be brittle and insufficiently flexible to cope with the stresses of bad weather.’
Signs of deteriation were first spotted in 1939, and attempts to renovate the spire were launched in 1974, without success.
The current building work was an attempt to finally finish the long-awaited renovations.
In the 19th century, French artist Claude Monet brought the cathedral to a global audience by painting it on several occasions.
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