The public prosecutor of the French Republic, Pierre Sennes, in Nantes, announced that a judicial investigation has been opened regarding a "deliberate fire" in the western Nantes Cathedral, which broke out today, Saturday, explaining that "3 different points of fire" have been discovered.
The firefighting teams confirmed this morning that they were able to "surround" the fire that broke out in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in the city of Nantes, western France.
The Prosecutor General of the Republic in the city of Nantes said, "At this stage, an investigation was opened regarding an arson attack," explaining that "there are no conclusions that can be drawn now, as we have to do several surveys that will bring new elements."
"When you arrive at a place where 3 fires are witnessed and you see 3 separate spots of fire that open an investigation ... it is a matter of common sense," Sinis said in a telephone conversation with the French Press Agency, explaining that "it is not possible to let such an event pass without judicial investigations."
He added that the judicial police were informed of the accident, and a fire expert from the technical police will arrive in Nantes to check the fire points and electrical installations of the cathedral.
French officials said the fire shattered the stained-glass windows and destroyed the building's main church instrument.
The director of the fire department, General Laurent Verlai, said that the damage cannot be compared to that caused by the fire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April 2019, and the damage of the cathedral itself in the fire that broke out in 1972 or even to Saint-Donacian in Nantes in 2015.
The construction of the cathedral dates back to the 15th century, and is of Gothic architecture, and a fire broke out in 1972.
The fire comes just over a year after the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was exposed to a fire that devoured its roof and main tower, as the images of the damage left behind by the fire are still stuck in the minds of the French.