PARIS, July 11. /TASS/. Firefighters have extinguished a blaze at Rouen’s nearly century-old cathedral, the France Info radio station reported.
According to its data, "the fire started on the construction scaffolding around the spire, but any significant damage to the spire itself was avoided."
The Prosecutor's Office of Rouen in the Seine-Maritime department has launched a probe into the incident. At this point, arson is not seen as the possible cause of the fire, the radio station said.
Rouen’s cathedral, founded in the 11th century, is the third Catholic church in France to catch fire in the past five years. In 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral caught fire. In 2020, attackers set on fire the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes.
The cathedral in Rouen was badly damaged in 1944 when British and American aircraft bombed the city during the Normandy landings.