Paris: a fire destroys a small Russian Orthodox church

Europe 1 with AFP 06:52, April 18, 2022

A small Russian Orthodox church burned Sunday in Paris, AFP learned from firefighters, and the track of an accidental fire is at this stage privileged.

The interior of the Saint-Séraphin-de-Sarov church, a very small wooden building in the 15th arrondissement of the capital, "was completely destroyed by fire" in the afternoon, without causing any victims, have said the firefighters.

Three people present gave the alert.

The privileged accidental thesis

According to the first elements, "the faithful would have installed fabrics and lit candles in order to prepare the office and then left the building", explained to AFP a police source.

The "accidental thesis is currently preferred", added this source.

"I express all my solidarity with the faithful of the Saint-Séraphin-de-Sarov Orthodox Church", tweeted in the evening the Minister of the Interior, also in charge of worship, Gérald Darmanin.

Unlike Catholics, Orthodox do not celebrate Easter on the weekend of April 16 and 17, but on April 23 and 24, according to the Julian calendar.

I express my full solidarity with the faithful of the Saint-Séraphin-de-Sarov Orthodox Church in Paris, which was affected by a fire this afternoon.

— Gerald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) April 17, 2022

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, several places associated with Russia have been targeted by acts of vandalism.

The origin of the fire was not known on Sunday, said the firefighters who asked the laboratory of the Prefecture of police to investigate.

The main places of Russian Orthodox worship in Paris are the Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky cathedral in the 8th arrondissement and the Sainte-Trinité cathedral, on the banks of the Seine and close to the Eiffel Tower, in the 7th arrondissement.