CNN —A fire broke out in the spire of the cathedral in the French city of Rouen on Thursday morning. The blaze erupted at the top of the spire of the gothic Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral in Rouen, in the northern region of Normandy. The prefecture confirmed on X that the cathedral was evacuated following the outbreak of the flames and that emergency services were working at the scene. “I turn around and I see the cathedral spire, the tarpaulin that was protecting the restoration work, which was burning, big flames, black smoke.”The construction of Rouen cathedral dates from the 12th century and it was built and rebuilt over a period of 800 years. This blaze comes five years after a massive fire broke out in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, devastating large parts of the 850-year-old church.

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Persons: Stéphane, Patrick Waeselynck, ’ ”, Claude Monet Organizations: CNN, Assumption, Normandy’s, Reuters, Notre Dame Cathedral Locations: French, Rouen, Normandy, Normandy’s prefecture, Oise, Paris