French home blast: One man dead and several police officers injured

One man was killed and several police officers were injured after an explosion at a home in central France.

It happened on Wednesday (March 15) at La Chapelle – a small town situated north-east of Clermont-Ferrand – in the Allier department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes).

Officers from France’s Gendarmerie nationale entered a house to take a man, 38, in for questioning, according to public prosecutor Eric Neveu.

The man that the police were seeking was killed in the explosion.

Two gendarmes were taken by helicopter to a hospital in Lyon specialising in serious burns. A third gendarme was taken to the Clermont-Ferrand hospital centre, said the Allier prefecture. According to the national gendarme website, the condition of one of the gendarmes is life-threatening.

To fight the flames and help the victims, 57 firemen and 27 fire engines were mobilised.

Mr Neveu said that the exact circumstances of the explosion are currently unknown, but that there was a smell of petrol beforehand.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, expressed his support to the gendarmes injured during this intervention.

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