Parisians gather outside burning Notre Dame to sing hymns

Hours after a blaze engulfed the roof of the centuries-old Notre Dame Cathedral, distraught Parisians and stunned tourists lined the banks of the Seine River, gazing in disbelief. Christians sang liturgical songs such as Hail Mary and Ave Maria, as the inferno raged at the cathedral. Others knelt and prayed. Thousands of onlookers stopped at bridges over the Seine and along its embankments, held at a distance by a police cordon. Notre Dame sits on the Ile de la Cite, an island on the Seine River marking the very centre of Paris. The Paris prosecutor's office said it had launched an inquiry into the fire. Several police sources said that they were working on the assumption for now that it was accidental.

Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ►

Notre Dame fire: Macron pledges to rebuild devastated Paris cathedral ►

Support the Guardian ►

Today in Focus podcast ►

The Guardian YouTube network:

The Guardian ►
Owen Jones talks ►
Guardian Football ►
Guardian Sport ►
Guardian Culture ►

notre dame,notre dame fire,notre dame cathederal,notre dame destroyed,notre dame choir,notre dame hymns,Paris fire,Notre dame cathedral,Notre dame cathedral fire,fire Notre dame,Notre dame video,Notre dame fire video,Notre dame cathedral fire video,Paris,France,fire,Notre dame roof fire,2019,cathedral fire,firefighters,spire,cathedral,catholic,religion,notre dame collapse,notre dame spire,world,