Europe 1 with AFP 08:49, April 18, 2023

The fire of a village house in the Meuse left two dead, a father and his 12-year-old son. Another three-year-old child is missing. On the night of Monday to Tuesday a disaster completely destroyed the terraced house located in Rupt-en-Woëvre, a village of less than 400 inhabitants located about fifteen kilometers southeast of Verdun.

A father and his 12-year-old son were killed in the night from Monday to Tuesday during the fire of a village house in the Meuse and a three-year-old child is missing, we learned from the firefighters.

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The origin of the fire remains unknown

The disaster completely destroyed the terraced house located in Rupt-en-Woëvre, a village of less than 400 inhabitants located about fifteen kilometers southeast of Verdun, said the duty officer of the Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) in Bar-le-Duc. Eight people were in the house when the fire broke out for an undetermined reason, the fire chief said. Five of them managed to escape the flames and were hospitalized in Verdun, without serious injuries. "The shock is mostly psychological," the officer told AFP.

The body of the 40-year-old father was found in the rubble, as well as that of a 12-year-old child. The body of another child, aged three, has not been found. An investigation into the origin of the disaster was entrusted to the departmental gendarmerie.