PARIS (AP) — A fire broke out Thursday in the spire of the medieval cathedral in the northern French city of Rouen, authorities said.
Witnesses speaking on BFM television described smoke emanating from the spire, and recalled a devastating fire in 2019 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris that toppled its spire and collapsed its roof.
The cathedral in Rouen in Normandy is widely known from a series of paintings by impressionist Claude Monet.
Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol posted on the social media platform X that “the beginning of a fire is underway on the spire of the cathedral of Rouen. The origin is unknown at this stage. All public resources are mobilized.”
The regional administration posted online that the cathedral was evacuated and a security perimeter is in place.
The cathedral in Paris, a major landmark, is scheduled to reopen in December after an unprecedented reconstruction effort. The cause of that fire was deemed an accident.