hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. the london teenager who ran away to syria as understood to have gotte n ran away to syria as understood to have gotten legal aid to fight the decision to revoke her british citizenship. more long—term security for attendants in england under new government plans to stop evictions at short notice without good reason. teachers are wearing that funding for children and young adults with special educational needs in england has reached a crisis point. and thousands of climate change protesters have brought someone london then possibly possess rose to a standstill. and say that action could last for up to two weeks. —— london's busiest roads to a standstill. some breaking news this hour. notre dame cathedral, one of the most famous buildings in the heart of paris is on fire tonight. these are the light pictures we are getting at the moment. you can see a huge smoke cloud and flames have

been seen rising from the centre. —— in pictures. it is a major landmark, and historic landmark in paris. must go to our correspondent, hugh. what do we know? it is a tragic scene in a very dramatic scene. extremely dramatic. the south facing roof on the train set is completely consumed in flames. i'm sending a hundred or 200 feet away from you on the road, being moved away by the police and i can feel the heat from here. it is not a little fire. there are plumes of smoke billowing up and covering the whole of the left flank of the paris, ran to see services have a right and paris, ran to see services have a rightand a paris, ran to see services have a right and a man at the latter escorting water onto the fire. it does not seem to be making much of a difference. this is a very significant fire which is consuming much of the central part of the roof. i can see scaffolding there,

there has been some work going on there has been some work going on there which may or may not be the reason for the fire but this is a really tragic scene in front of us here. we are hearing that police are telling everybody to avoid the area, the mayor from paris telling everybody to avoid the area, the mayorfrom paris is lamenting what he calls this terrible fire at the cathedral. it is a site that a lwa ys the cathedral. it is a site that always gets huge amounts of visitors. any indication of the start of the fire yet? not at all. all i can say is there scaffolding up, on the southern side of the the maze. and on the front. moving towards the south. it is there the fire has clearly started. it is consuming the roof, the roof which i imagine is largely weighed, gone up of flame. and there will be extensive damage when they put it out. —— a largely weighed. it is a

boring blaze at the moment, which is spreading to the far side of the cathedral down the eastern end. it is an absolute monument to architecture, one of the most famous gothic cathedrals probably there is and attracts more visitors than the eiffel tower does. it is a prime piece of heritage. it will not be destroyed but it will be extremely badly damaged. it is not clear how fast it is spreading to given the architecture that one knows her side of the building, presumably spreading pretty quickly. the roof is what is on fire. i think with luck, it will be the roof and other wooden parts that have burned but the bulk of it is with stone, and that stone is going to be blackened and damage but it will not be hit

with high temperatures and not colla pse with high temperatures and not collapse but the plan has to beget the roof blaze out as soon as possible but from what i see, there seem to be timbers going up, and creating a roof fire. very significant being pushed back again now by the police. there are important means that will be brought here to put it out but right now there is just the one solitary fire engine with a ladder up spring water from some distance away and i doubt it is making much difference. we see as you said, scaffolding up because of the renovations does that mean some of the most precious statues inside might have been removed? no. i think it would've been a bit of ongoing work. it is a building that has been has some difficulties because of the writing stonework on the outside. we have been up there and reporting got it on the past.

the work of pollution of the years had causing severe damage to some of the gargoyles and buttresses. so i imagine the work was renovated there and maintaining the outside stonework. so as to what will be damage, right now the roof. the statute in the gargoyles, they will be affected by this. we will have to see what the end of it will be. right now, all i can say is that the middle part of the building and the roof is completely consumed. in the rear now. looks incredible. just to look at the pictures. a reminder, all of the historic importance of this building. one of the first gothic cathedrals to be built in

france, i would suggest in the middle of the 12th century and it is a monumental model of that style of architecture with his soaring windows, and flying buttresses creating this celestial will vision and roof sustained by the buttresses on the outside. and all the other pictures of gothic architecture we know from all the other cathedrals but in many ways this was the original, and into being in paris of course, that iam being moved away back again. one of the original gothic cathedrals and a place that went on history. a place in the heart of paris. through all of the

ups and downs and the disasters and the successes of written history. still unknown to what cost it. still only one fire engine on the scene?” can only see one spring water but i hear a lot of helicopters and sirens arriving but there is only the ladder up and only one water spray thatis ladder up and only one water spray that is being directed at it now. it may well be they have to let it burn itself out. i cannot see this one canning making one big of a difference to what is a real congregation there. if you are seeing the pictures, you'll see it is some minorfire on seeing the pictures, you'll see it is some minor fire on a seeing the pictures, you'll see it is some minorfire on a bit seeing the pictures, you'll see it is some minor fire on a bit of the better. it is consuming the whole of the roof. how secure is that area if there has been a renovation work going on there? how is it possible that some sort of accident could have started given historic

importance and the care that must go into looking after a building like this? who knows. i have no idea what was going on in the building site... there is another aspect of the story which is purely incidental but there have been strays of attacks in recent times, attacks against christian the last few weeks. just a month or so ago, on the church doors come a fire damaging the doors. i suspect this is nothing to do with that. this is on the roof. the fact there are these building works there as well in the scaffolding, that suggest there is a link. a bit you can see up suggest there is a link. a bit you can see up there. right above the level of the roof. some serious work going on there. i was on the roof and on the stonework around it. any visitor to paris obviously sees this building rising on the skyline. it is such a striking symbol of the

city. people are going to be pretty alarmed by guess to see this.” city. people are going to be pretty alarmed by guess to see this. i am surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of tourists who are all filming this. it is quite a scene. not when they expected at all. it is a heartbreaking scene. i can see the spire catching fire now. the famous towers at the front are so far unscathed. but through the smoke, looking up at the spire, at the centre, that may be under threat as well. it is still absolutely all—consuming on the road. it is leaping up, the flames in a thick congregation, ten, 20 metres above the roof. we can see that picture of the roof. we can see that picture of the spire on fire there. that is heartbreaking to see that. one would've thought that they need helicopters here. maybe. this seems

to be end of the fire engine arriving. —— there seems to be another fire arriving. —— there seems to be anotherfire engine arriving. —— there seems to be another fire engine arriving. it may well be that they need to bring in something more airborne but i don't know if they have that at hand here. the destruction here is going to be immense, potentially. everybody being pushed back we see the terrorists mare limiting this terrible fire in the police telling everybody to stay away. —— as we sought the mayor limiting this terrible fire. we were here earlier and people were at the scene. on the south side across it, we were able to get pretty close to feel the heat and now we are being pushed back to the side streets into quarter and people are leaving. i had to say the

fire is so dramatic people who have heard of it will be probably at the scene just to see it. but there is 110w scene just to see it. but there is now a clear space for fire rescue and fire vehicles to emerge. we have just heard that president macron, do to speak this evening, has cancelled his plan address. i am not surprised. just because of this terrible fire. unbelievable to see this picture because it is one of the striking symbols of paris, a striking symbol of the whole country. yes. it is the most popular tourist destination in paris. it is pa rt tourist destination in paris. it is part of the identity. we look at the 2nd world war, deliberation, the rigging of the bells. —— second world war, and deliberation. people coming out onto the streets. it is that kind of dramatic importance

that kind of dramatic importance that the blood in cats. instead here since the beginning of christianity in france. —— it has that here since. before that, there was another church, a roman temple at the centre of paris. on the island where it all began. still there was this magnificent gothic cathedral which marked the identity of france and the catholic church in france. in particularly, for britons, a place which they see as the world moving around, it has always been there and always will be there. i'm seeing on twitter now the reaction here both from people in this country, politicians hair like tom watson from the labour party in nicola sturgeon and people in paris everybody saying this is awful and heartbreaking. and everybody hoping that this can be brought under control but we are not seeing evidence of that because we can see the crowds now outside of the cathedral and around the buildings, but we cannot see much evidence of

fire fighters presumably, they are closer to the building and may be hidden from the cameras. no. i don't think so. i think it is very different. it is right on the bank of the river. so the gap between the river and the cathedral, divided by the island, it is tiny. and they are guardians there. it will be very ha rd to guardians there. it will be very hard to get fire vehicles there. —— there are gardens there. the fire truck i saw spring water was on the key. it will be very hard on the side of the building to get fire vehicles. people are wondering whether there are lives at stake, with this fire because... this is a

massive leave visited a building. and people were working around it. i suppose we have no information on this? —— a massive visited building. i think the risk of lies being lost is probably fairly small thankfully because this is the roof and there are because this is the roof and there a re parts of because this is the roof and there are parts of the building where people can travel up and walk among the gargoyles but at the front of the gargoyles but at the front of the building, on the towers, and this is the side on the centre around the spire in the north transit and the bid at the far east, a lecture on a special organised trip, you wouldn't be there. tours do not go there. —— unless you are ona do not go there. —— unless you are on a special trip. there may be workmen who were up there but it happened in the evening when work shifts would normally have stood down, so i hope there is a good chance that it is casualty free but who knows. finally, iwant

chance that it is casualty free but who knows. finally, i want to mention that even donald trump has tweeted in the last five minutes and get a terrible to watch the massive fire, perhaps a blind wire takers can be used to put it out. —— flying fire tankers can be used. i'm sure it is complicated as you said to get near to this structure. just to exit once more very quickly, no indication as to yet to whether this is an accident or what might have started this? no. my feeling is it is probably an accident. there is scaffolding up there, and there were some work going on but i don't know if there is a back story of attacks on christian places on france over the last two weeks, probably nothing to do with it, but you can't totally discount anything. thank you hugh. our correspondent there in paris, we can speak to a tourist who is there any paris. where are you and what

can you see? i am located in the famous english speaking book store 100 metres away, a minute walk at most, all of the streets now have been cleared, 25, 30 minutes ago, it engulfed the roof of the cathedral. at the front of much of them. as i can see it from here, come a few metres away. —— at the front of notre dame. it is heartbreaking watching this fire getting ever closer to the front of the building. the roof itself has started to fall in. you can see where it is exposed. it looks like all of the roof is being consumed, reaching hundreds of feet into the air. i can feel on the

windowsill in front of me. the firemen are struggling with the operation. it is a huge national monument come at the same time it is still trying to figure out how to tackle the flames. they only have one firemen on a cherry picker being sent up. a solitary firemen... i think they said they couldn't get close enough to the actual roof. and there seems to be the case from where i was standing. so at the moment, it is frightening and it is taking out the central tower and smoke is emanating from the spire at the front, and it is coming in thick and fast. it can really be distressing to see, anybody who has been to paris will no doubt know notre dame will and will be

heartbroken. absolutely. iwas notre dame will and will be heartbroken. absolutely. i was since there if few weeks ago. we are due backin there if few weeks ago. we are due back ina there if few weeks ago. we are due back in a few days. it is absolutely heartbreaking. can you see how many firefighters there are. any sign of any helicopters trying to drop water from the sky? no. there is probably about one dozen fire engines this and assorted fire vehicles, probably about 25 in all. all at this point, about 25 in all. all at this point, a hundred firemen in all. still in the planning stages of the operation. that is happening in the air, no helicopters i can see. the police have done their work and cordoning off all of the surrounding streets. at some point it'll like it might bea streets. at some point it'll like it might be a danger to surrounding buildings but that is probably will not be case. what is clear is when the fire started, it started and emanated from the area where there was scaffolding. so that might be

the from the restoration work. the power has just caved in. —— the tower. into the cathedral itself. that will be a huge complication and side of the building itself no doubt. that just happened side of the building itself no doubt. thatjust happened now. from my very eyes. did you see the start of the fire? hear any explosions? anything at the start that indicated this was happening? no. i didn't hear any explosion. i was working at the time. i have my back to the window. it felt like it was probably accidental, it was very hard to say. it may well have been most likely related now... explosions coming

from the building at the top at this very moment, related to the fire. and there is a watering of heat coming andi and there is a watering of heat coming and i could fill a