Paris train station fire | Paris Gare de Lyon | Train station fire paris
French police evacuated Paris’ Gare de Lyon train station on Friday after a huge blaze broke out. A major train station in the center of Paris was evacuated after a huge fire broke out nearby.
Clouds of black smoke could be seen billowing near the Gare de Lyon station — one of six major stations in the French capital — as a row of parked scooters and motorcycles burned.
image of the event showed thick black smoke and a massive fire at the station as people walked past. “The police are intervening to stop the demonstration,” authorities said. Local police also tweeted Friday that cars in the area were set on fire near a concert at the AccorHotels Arena. Gare de Lyon is a major Parisian station for trains heading south out of the city.
According to AFP, the fire occurred on the sidelines of a demonstration against Fally Ipupa, a singer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Police told News that clashes broke out between people attending a concert by singer Fally Ipupa, a star in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and those boycotting it.
Police had earlier tweeted that cars were set alight along the sidewalk. Ipupa was set to perform at the AccorHotels Arena on Friday night.
Huge plumes of smoke could be seen powering towards the sky in pictures posted by eyewitnesses on social media.
"Scooters were first set on fire then the fire quickly propagated," police said, adding that public demonstrations had previously been banned in the area surrounding the event.
Advising people to avoid the area so that emergency services could get through, police said they were evacuating the station as a precaution. Others showed an angry mob attacking firefighters at the scene.
The fire was started deliberately, police tweeted, adding that it resulted from "unacceptable abuses committed on the margins of a concert."
They also tweeted that fire services had control of the fire and it was being put out.
The fires come less than a year after a huge blaze engulfed Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral, caused the historic building's roof to collapse.
The fire, which took nine hours to extinguish, also destroyed a spire and spread to one of its two rectangular towers.
