French building collapse kills 6, gas explosion suspected

PARIS (AP) — A French prosecutor says investigators are treating the deaths of at least six people who were killed when a building collapsed in the city of Marseille as a possible “involuntary homicide” case. Prosecutor Dominique Laurens said Tuesday that an investigation was opened on that basis after the first body was found in the building, which collapsed in an explosion on Sunday. Four of the six victims have been formally identified, Laurens said: a 74-year-old couple and two women, ages 88 and 65, who were neighbors. Rescuers continuing searching Tuesday for two people who remained unaccounted for. Laurents says investigators are working on the hypothesis that a gas explosion caused the building’s collapse.