Twenty-four hours after an explosion brought down a four-storey building in Marseille , southern France , rescue services have found the first two bodies of eight people suspected of missing in the rubble.

The firefighters said in a statement shortly after dawn on Monday that "two bodies" had been found, but "given the difficulties... it will take time to recover (the bodies from the site)."

"Tonight, the sorrow and the pain are great," Marseille Mayor Benoit Payen said in a statement, adding, "We continue to do everything we can to complete the rescue operations."

The collapse of the building in the coastal city of Marseille injured at least five people, and there are still people missing, but a fire is hampering rescue efforts.

After a large explosion on Saturday night, Building No. 17 on Tivoli Street in a neighborhood famous for its cafes and restaurants in Marseille collapsed, and two adjacent buildings were damaged, one of which collapsed hours after the accident, while the second was about to fall.

Before the bodies were found, the Marseille public prosecutor, Dominique Lawrence, said, "We have eight people who are not responding in building number 17 on avenue Tivoli and at the level of the garden that connects buildings 15 and 17 (...) we have no news."

For their part, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan and the city's mayor, Benoit Bayan, said that five people residing in buildings close to Building 17 were injured, but their conditions are stable.

"The eight people you spoke about told us their relatives and families that there is no news about them," Lawrence added.

Rescue teams have been searching for hours, and firefighting teams are racing against time to put out a fire under the rubble that prevents trained dogs from searching for possible survivors.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his "sadness" over this tragedy.

An AFP photographer from a tall building in the neighborhood on Sunday evening saw smoke continuing to billow near the ruins.

Earlier, Darmanan, who came to the site to support the residents and about a hundred firefighters during their work, announced the presence of four people under the rubble "for sure," and added that "there could be about ten people."

Lawrence indicated that "it is still impossible at this time to determine the causes of the explosion," which led to the collapse of the four-storey building.

She added that "gas is of course one of the possible possibilities" and may have caused the explosion, which was recorded by surveillance cameras at 00:46 (22:46 GMT).

Witness Aziz told AFP that when the explosion occurred, "everything shook and we saw people running and smoke everywhere, then the building collapsed in the street."

"We soon smelled a strong smell of gas, which we kept smelling this morning," said Savera Mosnier, who lives in a nearby street, to AFP.

The official in charge of security in the municipality of Marseille, Yannick Ohannesian, said that a number of witnesses spoke of "their suspicion of inhaling gas odors."
About 30 precautionary buildings have been evacuated, including 186 people or 90 families in four streets, according to Housing Minister Olivier Clain, who is visiting Marseille on Monday.

In November 2018, eight people were killed in the collapse of two buildings in another area of Marseille. These buildings were dangerously dilapidated in a city where 40,000 people live in slums, according to NGOs.

But the mayor seems unlikely that the building that collapsed on Sunday is dilapidated in a neighborhood known for its restaurants, bars and nightlife.

He said, "As far as I know, there are no special problems with this building. We are not facing the case of a street that includes unhealthy housing."