Security tightened in France on Friday after a package bomb detonated outside a bakery in Lyon. Police and soldiers cordoned off the area and are telling people to stay away.

Christophe Castaner, the country's interior minister, ordered security increased around sports, cultural and religious sites. Officials fear there could be more bombs.

Police are hunting for a man believed to be in his 30s. Security camera captured him pushing a bike with a bag while wearing a mask and sunglasses. Authorities are asking the public's help in identifying him.

France has threatened three French journalists with potential jail time for using secret documents to reveal the country's involvement in the Yemen civil war.

In a series of reports published in April, investigative journalists from Disclose and Radio France revealed the number of French arms sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Eiffel Tower closed down on Monday after a man began trying to scale the Paris monument.

A person could be seen dangling just below the third and highest level of the structure. A rescuer dressed in red was just above him.

Police said the climber was a male.

Yesterday, hundreds of undocumented migrants took control of Terminal 2 of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris France. Approximately 500 migrants seized the terminal.

“France does not belong to the French! Everyone has a right to be here!” one person can be heard yelling into a loudspeaker.

France's Yellow Vest protesters are taking to the streets for the 27th weekend in a row. A major protest is set to take place in Paris.

Tens of thousands have marched in the streets of France every Saturday since November 2018, for a variety of grievances ranging from taxes on fuel to income inequality.

In addition to protesting in France, the Yellow Vests have been spotted in other parts of Europe.

SOURCE: THE INTERCEPT

JOURNALISTS IN FRANCE are facing potential jail sentences in an unprecedented case over their handling of secret documents detailing the country’s involvement in the Yemen conflict.

Earlier this week, a reporter from Radio France and the co-founders of Paris-based investigative news organization Disclose were called in for questioning at the offices of the General Directorate for Internal Security, known as the DGSI, an organization that is tasked with fighting terrorism, espionage, and other domestic threats, similar in function to the FBI in the United States.

The two news organizations published stories in April – together with The Intercept, Mediapart, ARTE Info, and Konbini News – that revealed the vast amount of French, British, and American military equipment sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and subsequently used by those nations to wage war in Yemen.

L’Élysée has used the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris to carry out a project that was in limbo. It has set new rules, outside respect for heritage and normal tendering procedures, not to restore the cathedral, but to transform the Ile de la Cité into Europe’s leading tourist destination on the eve of the 2024 Olympic Games. To avoid judicial constraints, the hypothesis of a construction site accident was arbitrarily imposed.

With the rise of the Yellow Vest Movement in France - which began last October and continues today - French activists and writers have begun to re-evaluate the state of French income and poverty. Since the movement began, articles with titles such as " Revealed: The shocking scale of poverty in France in 2018 " or " Soul-searching in France as poverty leaves one million children hungry " have become more overtly political given the context of the protests.

Typically, the government's response to accusations of widespread poverty - which, as in America, are not necessarily accurate accusations - has been to spend more money on social programs.

But here's the thing: France is already spending more than the rest of Europe when it comes to welfare programs. According to the OECD, when it comes to "public social spending" as a percentage of GDP, France tops the list at over 31 percent.

The world was shocked by the sight of Notre Dame Cathedral burning . It prompted many people to think about their heritage and reminded them of how we take the great works of the past for granted. The French government is committed to fully restoring the Cathedral and this is going to be a massive undertaking.

Although the skilled artisans for such a project are in short supply, the workers for the restoration could well be found in Guédelon, Burgundy. Here there is a unique scheme, where craft persons are building a 13 th century castle, using medieval tools, designs, and techniques.

US social justice activists incensed at the Cannes Festival’s intent to honor Alain Delon have started a petition to stop it, citing the legendary actor’s “close-minded” views. The festival, and the French public, were not amused.

Cannes organizers have held firm in their intent to honor the actor, now 83, with a Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement. One of the most prestigious European film festivals kicked off this week with posters of Delon from his 1960s heyday as a sex symbol.

A Saudi vessel that had been due to load weapons at a northern French port on Friday set sail without them and headed for Spain, a day after a rights group tried to block the cargo on humanitarian grounds.

The French prosecutor on Friday said it had opened a preliminary investigation into a suspected file assembled by Bayer’s seed maker Monsanto to influence various personalities in France.

The probe was opened after a complaint was filed by daily newspaper Le Monde.

According to Le Monde and other French media, Monsanto built up a file of some 200 names that includes journalists and law makers in the hope of influencing their positions on pesticides.

The file, Le Monde reports, dates from 2016 and was leaked by U.S public relations and marketing agency FleishmanHillard.

Officials at Bayer were not immediately available for comment.

Activists gathered on Saturday in Paris for the 26th consecutive week of Yellow Vests protests, as President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to cut the income tax in order to ease the economic burden on French taxpayers.

Last week, three separate protests took place in Paris, and people took to the streets of Lyon, Toulouse and Montpellier. In addition, another rally took place at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where people protested against the privatisation of the airport.

The French president should step down if his party does not prevail in the upcoming European Parliament election, National Rally chief Marine Le Pen says, as both political forces are tied ahead of the vote.

The election should be viewed as a referendum which may well seal Macron’s fate, Marine Le Pen said this week as she spoke on national TV. The opposition politician also expressed hope that the president would have the “honor and dignity” to step down if faced with a defeat – just like General Charles de Gaulle, who resigned in 1946 after his Popular Republican Movement party lost the parliamentary election to the communists.

Under these conditions he should act like General de Gaulle: if he loses this election, he should go.

France has formulated draft legislation scheduled to hit Parliament's agenda in the coming months to compel platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove hateful content within 24 hours or face heavy fines.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday for talks amid increasing pressure on the social media giant to honour pledges to tackle hate speech and misinformation online.

The visit comes against the backdrop of regulators worldwide urging social media platforms to shoulder more responsibility for what their users post.

Over 300 media organisations, journalists, photographers, and others have signed a letter denouncing the sometimes brutal violence used against members of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement and members of the press themselves in France.

The letter claims that press freedom in France has been suffering for years but entered a new phase following the start of the Yellow Vest protests in November of last year, Franceinfo reports.

“All these forms of violence have physical (injury), psychic (trauma) or financial (broken or confiscated equipment) consequences. We are personally and professionally denigrated and criminalized,” they wrote, and added that journalist David Dufresne had counted at least 698 cases of people being attacked or injured by police at the protests, including 85 journalists.

Alain Soral, a French scholar, intellectual, and journalist, has been tyrannically persecuted by organized Jewry in France for years. Back in January, we reported that he was sentenced to a one year prison sentence for “inciting anti-Semitism” by publishing critiques of Jews on his website. He has since faced other prosecutions for his intellectual activity, and even his defense lawyer has been fined by the French judicial system for simply defending the man in court.

An award-winning architect has unveiled his grand plans for the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral spire which would make it solar powered and even include a garden to grow 21 tonnes of fruit and vegetables each year.

Vincent Callebaut has submitted his innovative designs for the rebuild of the famous cathedral, which would transform it into a modern, eco-friendly building.

The architect's stunning plans would even see the cathedral in Paris become self-sufficient, producing more energy than it consumes.

Former executives at France Télécom, the telecoms firm now known as Orange, have gone on trial over a spate of suicides among staff a decade ago.

The accused are facing charges linked to “moral harassment” and allegedly creating a climate that drove at least 19 employees to take their own lives.

Dozens of far-left Black Bloc Antifa activists stormed a Paris hospital during the May Day riots in the city this week, with staff claiming the extremists threatened them and put patients at risk.

The group of black-clad extremists made “violent and threatening gestures” according to Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital director Marie-Anne Ruder, who said she was “shocked” that the anarchists would choose to target a hospital during the riots — which have become an annual occurrence in the French capital, Ouest France reports.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner visited the hospital later in the day and described the incident in even stronger terms, saying that the far-left individuals had “attacked” the medical centre and that a police officer had told him around 30 people were arrested as a result.

Alain Finkielkraut recently stated: “Soral is the most dangerous and ominous character of the public scene.” To understand the significance of these words, you have to know who is Alain Finkielkraut, and who is Alain Soral.

Finkielkraut is one of our French neoconservatives. Formerly a Trotskyist, he is now a nationalist. He embodies what Soral calls National-Zionism, that new ideology massively promoted by Jewish “intellectuals” and media pundits who, after calling for the abolition of borders and drowning Europe in mass immigration, now tell the French people to turn to Israel as a model for dealing with Muslims.

French police clashed with stone-throwing protesters as tens of thousands of people started marching in Paris Wednesday for May Day rallies under tight security. More than 200 arrests were made.

Riot police repeatedly used tear gas and sting grenades to try to control the crowd gathering near Paris’ Montparnasse train station for the main protest. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were injured. At least two men with head wounds were helped away from the scene by paramedics.

Associated Press reporters saw groups of hooded, black-clad people shouting anti-police slogans, mixing with other protesters wearing yellow vests or waving union flags.

The Notre Dame fire has brought into the open the strategic shift in public opinion that has occurred over the winter; shifts all to the advantage of the Gilets Jaunes. While the cold winter months with their looming darkness only allowed us to glimpse two equal parties grinding away at each other in the gloom, the advent of spring and its clear light, reveals how the Gilets are gathering reserves of strength all over France, and how, now, they are slowly winning in Paris as well.

A recent statement made by the outgoing French Ambassador to the US regarding the nature of Israeli apartheid accentuates a larger ailment that has afflicted the European Union foreign policy.

The EU is simply gutless when it comes to confronting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Ambassador Gerard Araud was, of course, right when he told the US magazine, the ‘Atlantic’, that Israel is already an apartheid state.

Noting the “disproportion of power” between Israel and the Palestinians, Araud said, “The strongest (meaning Israel) may conclude that they have no interest to make concessions.”

And since Israel “won’t make (Palestinians) citizens of Israel … they will have to make it official, which we know the situation, which is apartheid.” Araud added, “There will be officially an apartheid state. They are in fact already.”

Paris Saint-Germain football fans chanted “fuck you Macron!” during last night’s Coupe de France final in Paris as the French president sat in the stands.

A video clip shows PSG supporters vociferously chanting the insult during last night’s game with Rennes in St. Denis.

According to reports, Macron’s presence at the match had to be very carefully handled so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself and elicit a chorus of boos from the entire stadium.

Yellow Vest protesters who have suffered life-changing injuries at the hands of French police have launched their own association, promising fresh actions against police brutality.

Called “the mutilated for the edification of others,” the collective aims to accurately calculate the number of people who have been injured nationally by police during Yellow Vest protests. It also called for an end to the use of the non-lethal weapons deployed by French police — namely tear gas canisters and Flash Balls — and a large national demonstration is scheduled in Paris on May 26.

Among those attending was Jerome Rodrigues, a prominent Yellow Vest leader who was hit in the eye with a gas canister during a demonstration in January. “You have 19 people in front of you and you have only 26 eyes that look back,” he told the press conference. “Count, there is a small problem,” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared his intention to tackle “political Islam” in what he is labelling “Act II” of his term as French leader.
President Macron said that the first “Act” of his presidency, which began in May 2017, was over and that he would be looking to focus on different issues between 2019 and 2021 when he is set to try for re-election. Among the topics will be the fight against a political Islam Macron described as forming parallel societies and attempting to “secede” from French society, Le Point reports.

“We are above all the children of the Enlightenment,” Macron said and added that he wanted to see France rediscover “the art of being French” in a country that has become increasingly divided in recent years.

Yellow Vest protesters have marched on the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, prompting police to deploy tear gas. The demonstrators have also swarmed several TV stations, demanding better coverage of their movement.
The 24th consecutive weekend of demonstrations saw more than 5,000 protesters take to the streets across France, including 2,600 in Paris, according to Interior Ministry figures, which the Yellow Vests have often questioned in the past.

In Strasbourg, tear gas filled the streets as police struggled to keep hundreds of demonstrators away from the EU Parliament buildings. Police have blocked roads and bridges, and clashes have broken out between heavily armored riot control officers and masked protesters.

Unrelenting Yellow Vest activists have marched in Paris and other French cities for the 24th straight weekend, just days after Emmanuel Macron tried to placate the protest movement with promises of lower taxes.

The demonstrators who assembled in Paris, Toulouse and Strasbourg on Saturday appear to signal that despite the French president’s recent concessions to the group, the Yellow Vest movement is alive and well.

Eight international NGOs demanded on Thursday that France suspend delivery of boats to Libya’s coast guard over concerns they would be used to intercept migrants. The groups included Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders. French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly had in February agreed to donate six boats to the Libyan Navy, under which the coast guard operates. The move, she said, was aimed at helping them “in the fight against illegal immigration.” However, rights groups say the vessels would be used to block migrant boats attempting to reach Europe, forcing those on board to return to war-torn Libya.

Popular Israeli morning TV host Avri Gilad sparked controversery Monday by claiming that Muslims in France have been setting fire to churches, and insinuated that Notre Dame Cathedral was among them.

Gilad said during a discussion on the Sri Lanka terror attacks on his morning television show that French churches are being set on fire by Muslims.

The heart of France is on fire. An inferno rocked France. Notre Dame, cultural icon of France and UNESCO declared World Heritage, was burning. The flames devastated the wooden roof and the spire. They caused, at first sight, only light damage on the 12th century cathedral’s structure and historic treasures, as most of the latter were either removed for the ongoing renovation, or were removed just in time by firefighters. Some damage to religious artifacts may have been caused by the enormous amounts of water used by the 500 firemen who dozed the blaze which took about 12 to extinguish. Given the circumstances – a bone-dry wooden roof and spire, largely unprotected from fire hazards – the 850-year-old gothic master piece was lucky for having been saved at all.

Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy won Sunday's presidential runoff race with 73 percent of the vote, blowing out incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. Russian telephone trolls Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexei “Lexus” Stoliarov spoke to the French president by phone posing as the president-elect to gage his reaction.

In the phone call, which took place on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron congratulates "Zelenskiy" on his victory, telling him to "enjoy this moment", "since tomorrow you will bear a huge burden of responsibility".

"Thank you very much for your support. 73 percent – I feel like Vladimir Putin, he had the same result", the pranksters joke. Macron, in turn, assures "Zelenskiy" that Ukraine's elections don't work "like in Russia", and that his victory was "more natural".

French media reports citing an interview with the former French Inspector-General for Historic Monuments Benjamin Mouton, who oversaw the installation of state-of-the-art fire prevention systems in the Notre Dame Cathedral in 2010, and who was responsible for the building from 2000 to 2013, cast doubt on today's leak to the Associated Press that the fire was likely caused by an electrical short-circuit.

The French police are now protesting after 28 officers have committed suicide so far in 2019. This is double the amount recorded at the same time last year. While the press tends to focus on complaints of a lack of resources, unpaid overtime, and inefficient management, they are not speaking about the social isolation the police are starting to experience as they defend the government against the people.

"The working conditions are difficult, the management is too hard. When we are not already feeling well in the private sphere and it is not going well in the professional sphere, it is complicated," Frederic Lagache, deputy general secretary at Syndicat Alliance - France's biggest police union - told Euronews.

French police said they arrested more than 200 "yellow vest" demonstrators in Paris on Saturday as clashes broke out with demonstrators turning out for a 23rd week of anti-government protests.

AFP journalists reported scuffles between police and protesters in the afternoon, after hours of calm, as police used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse marchers in the centre of the French capital.

Some protesters threw bottles and other objects at police and set fire to vehicles, safety barriers and bins.

Between the two major squares of Bastille and Republique the damage done had been considerable, said Emmanuel Gregoire, deputy mayor of Paris, told AFP.

The damage to Notre Dame cathedral is massive: The roof was destroyed, a spire collapsed and the stone was exposed to immense heat. What will efforts to rebuild look like? We asked one of the engineers behind the reconstruction of Dresden's Frauenkirche church.

In an interview with the Atlantic last Friday, outgoing French Ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud made headlines after emphatically stating that Israel is already “an apartheid state” and that the Trump administration’s so-called “Deal of the Century” aimed at resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict is “99 percent doomed.”

Araud — whose first government post was in France’s Tel Aviv embassy, and who was the French ambassador to Israel from 2003 to 2006 — made the claim after being asked about his views on the Israel-Palestine “peace process.” After stating that he enjoys a “close” relationship with Jared Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law who has spent the last two years drafting a “peace plan” for the Trump administration — Araud noted that Kushner’s “proposal is very close to what the Israelis want.”

Norman Foster of Thames Bank, one of Britain’s most famous architects, said that the competition was an “extraordinary opportunity” that would prove irresistible to anyone in the profession. He suggested submissions should embrace the boldness of the original builders, who pushed the limits of the technology of their day with their flying buttresses.

Foster is most well-known for his project of an enormous glass dome that was added while rebuilding the Reichstag in Berlin in 1999, which had been burnt down by the Nazis. He suggested that the new Cathedral’s spire could be “a work of art about light” and should be “contemporary and very spiritual and capture the confident spirit of the time”. He even published a possible project with a glass roof and spire, which quickly caught the attention of netizens.

A robot named "Colossus" played a key role in helping save the lives of firefighters at the recent Notre Dame blaze, according to The Independent. When the commander of the Paris fire brigade told his firefighters to retreat because the building's temperatures had grown too high, he instead enlisted the help of a 1,100 pound tank-like robot with the ability to venture into places and conditions that would quickly kill a human being.

The robot utilizes a water cannon capable of firing more than 660 gallons per minute, which it sprayed at the walls of the cathedral in the midst of the blaze.

Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade said: “Time was against us, the wind was against us and we had to get the upper hand. The priority we set was to save the two belfries. Imagine if the timber of the belfries had been weakened and the bells had collapsed. That was really our fear. In the beginning, it was not impossible to imagine that the cathedral structure could collapse.”

Yellow Vests demonstrators are taking to streets for the 23rd round of protests that have been rocking the county since mid-November. A major demonstration is set to take place in the capital city of Paris.

The police have warned protesters to stay away from the Notre Dame cathedral area Saturday in the wake of a deadly blaze that erupted there on Monday.

That same day, President Emmanuel Macron was supposed to unveil measures to quell the protests, but had to cancel the announcement due to the Notre Dame tragedy.

The French president is yet to reveal a new date for his address.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended his condolences to France and its leader as well as an offer of help in rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral.

In a message to Emmanuel Macron published on the Kremlin’s official website, Putin says he hopes the historic cathedral can be repaired after the fire destroyed part of its roof, clock and spire. He also offered to send “the best Russian experts with experience in restoring monuments of cultural heritage” to help.

The inferno which engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was a hard sight to witness, Vladimir Putin has told French businessmen in the Kremlin. Russian companies are eager to join reconstruction efforts, he added.
"We’re all sorry. We all watched this with tears in our eyes,” the president said as he described his reaction, and that of many Russians, as the blaze struck in the heart of the French capital on Monday.

Notre Dame is not just a symbol of France, but a symbol of the whole of European civilization, Putin pointed out as he met with the top managers from Total, Reno, Auchan and some other major French businesses in the Kremlin.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild the devastated Notre Dame within the next five years. The Russian leader expressed confidence that those plans will be fulfilled and made assurances that Russian companies, which have interests in France, were ready to help with the reconstruction of the landmark.

Notre-Dame belongs to the French state, which had been paying little to no attention to a gothic jewel that traversed eight centuries.

Fragments of arcades, chimeras, reliefs, gargoyles were always falling to the ground and kept in an improvised deposit in the back of the cathedral.

Only last year Notre-Dame got a check for 2 million euros to restore the spire – which burned to the ground yesterday.

To restore the whole cathedral would have cost 150 million euros, according to the top world expert on Notre-Dame, who happens to be an American, Andrew Tallon.

Recently, the custodians of the cathedral and the French state were actually at war.

The French state was making at least 4 million euros a year, charging tourists to enter the Twin (Bell) Towers but putting back only 2 million euros for the maintenance of Notre-Dame.

The rector of Notre-Dame refused to charge for a ticket to enter the cathedral – as it happens, for example, at the Duomo in Milan.

Gilbert Mercier, editor-in-chief of News Junkie Post and author of “The Orwellian Empire,” joined Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear Wednesday to discuss how French President Emmanuel Macron’s solemn speech in the aftermath of the fire that devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame could boost Macron’s approval ratings.

"It might sound kind of cynical on my part, but for politicians, it seems like all disasters can be used for potential political gain," Mercier told hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.

President Donald Trump spoke with Pope Francis on Wednesday to offer condolences after the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.
“Just had a wonderful conversation with Pope Francis offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Restoration of the famous Catholic cathedral will take several years and billions of dollars after the destructive fire on Monday.

Trump offered assistance for the process from the United States.

“I offered the help of our great experts on renovation and construction as I did in my conversation yesterday with President Emmanuel Macron of France,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The fire occurred during Holy Week, just prior to Easter Sunday, which prompted the president to recognize the season.

“I also wished both Pope Francis and President Macron a very Happy Easter!” Trump said.

Locals were overheard singing hymns outside the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris as firefighters continued battling the flames there into Tuesday morning.

The spire and part of the roof collapsed earlier in the evening, after the fire rapidly spread though the cathedral, though firefighters saved the main bell towers and outer walls from collapse before
bringing the blaze under control.

The fire, after burning for about 8 hours, was largely extinguished by 0300 CET on Tuesday. Earlier, in addition to battling to prevent one of the main bell towers from collapsing, firefighters tried to rescue religious relics and priceless artwork.

One of three women allegedly involved in a foiled plot in 2016 to blow up a car packed with gas canisters near the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was on Friday sentenced to eight years in prison by a French court for earlier offences.

Ines Madani, 22, was sentenced following a three-day trial during which she was accused of encouraging would-be jihadists to go to Syria and participate in attacks against France between March 2015 and June 2016.

She used Telegram – an encrypted messaging app widely used by jihadists to communicate.

GLENN BECK (HOST): If this was arson, this is going to be bad. If this was arson of any foreign -- kind of -- any foreign entity, any -- anybody with a grudge, I think if -- if, and this is a huge if -- it might have just been started by a cigarette. We don't know. But if this was started by Islamists, I don't think you'll find out about it, because I think it would set the entire country on fire.

...

This is their World Trade Center moment, and if this was done by terrorists, I think that they will keep it quiet, because -- I just don't think Macron and France wants that internal fight.

Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said there was no obvious indication the fire was arson. Fifty people were working on what would be a long and complex investigation. One firefighter was injured but no one else was hurt in the blaze which began after the building was closed to the public for the evening.

From the outside, the imposing bell towers and outer walls, with their vast flying buttresses, still stood firm, but the insides and the upper structure were eviscerated by the blaze.

Its focus is currently on Le Bras Freres (Le Bras Brothers), a company based in Jarny, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department of north-eastern France.

Some of its 200 specialist employees were working on the wooden and lead spire of Notre Dame Cathedral that collapsed on Monday evening after the fire broke out on the roof just before 7pm.

“Many of these restorers were interviewed overnight,” said a source close to the investigation that has been opened into ‘accidental destruction by fire’.

Is France going to blame the Notra Dame fire on the Yellow Vests to shut them down?

The recently-deceased Prof. Andrew Tallon finished the painstaking work of laser scanning Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, creating rich raw data that could potentially help in reconstruction efforts.

The main structure of Notre-Dame cathedral in central Paris has been saved after hours of firefighting to put out a devastating blaze, the city's top fire official said late on Monday.

Paris fire brigade chief Jean-Claude Gallet told reporters outside the cathedral: "We can consider that the main structure of Notre-Dame has been saved and preserved."

He added that it appeared the two main towers of the building had now been saved.

Firefighters, 400 of whom tackled the blaze, had earlier warned they might not be able to save Notre-Dame as a catastrophic blaze engulfed one of the greatest architectural treasures of the Western world.

A fire has broken out at the world-famous Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

Pictures posted on social media showed enormous plumes of smoke billowing into the city's skyline as firefighters rushed to the historic site.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, the fire broke out in the attic of the historic monument before spreading to engulf a large section of the roof.