fire crews from across paris have come here to save whatever they possibly can, and the striking thing, standing among the crowds on the banks of the seine, isjust the silence, the quiet of people stunned by the destruction of notjust a great french cultural artefact but of one that belonged to the world. notre dame de paris offered an image of france that seemed eternal, welcome to bbc news, even if the age of kings broadcasting to viewers in north america and emperors and powerful cardinals and around the globe. past was long past. my name is mike embley. our top stories: devastation and destruction — it was built more than 800 years ago one of the world's architectural when kings ruled by divine right, wonders, notre dame cathedral, in paris, and grand and great cathedrals of stone and stained glass were designed to reach has been left in ruins by a fire. for the sublime. these are the live pictures so this is absolutely a cultural disaster, of the historic building for all of us, notjust the french, and firefighters still working on the site. but also of european significance. officials say the structure and its two main towers have been saved. paris had been the hot cauldron of gothic architecture from the 11th also much of the inside has been

saved. despite major efforts to stop and 12th centuries, and it had the blaze spreading, influenced a whole lot of buildings and just a few hours in england, including after the fire began, westminster abbey, and all our subsequent cathedrals. people were left shocked the moment notre dame survived europe's the spire collapsed. devastating wars of religion, these are the first and the age of revolution. pictures from inside, where investigators are trying to establish the severity it was a theatre of hubris, napoleon was crowned emperor here by the pope. at the end of world war ii, the bells of notre dame pealed the hour of liberation. its glories are a source of pride for the people of the city. translation: i speak to your english audience to share my immense sorrow, my immense pain in front of this catastrophe that has befallen notre notre dame. i have lived here for more than 30 years, my three children were baptised here. what the germans did not destroy was ruined by stupid fire. higher and higher, it goes up... the fear of devastating fire was always present. this was the mid—1930s, when the paris fire service drilled for such an eventuality, but it was a renovation in the modern age that prove catastrophic. these statues were moved

for protection just last week. tonight, paris feels like a city that is mourning the loss of an essential part of itself. fergal keane, bbc news, paris. earlier i spoke with margot fassler a specialist in medieval music from the university of notre dame in indiana — aboutjust how significant this loss is to the world of sacred music. well, the cathedral of notre dame of course has a mediaeval acoustic and so that means you have very high reverberation so it is excellent for chant. one of the most exciting times in my life, and i speak here as a mediaeval musicologist, i just want to express to all of ourfriends in france how

devastated those of us in this field are at this particular moment because the cathedral of notre dame is, in a sense, our homeland. this is where so much of the music which is so important in ourfield was first composed in the late 12th and 13th century. during the very time the cathedral was being built, there was the notre dame school. so the particular acoustic of the cathedral was something that we could test. it was over a decade ago that a group of us gathered and we had a wonderful concert in the cathedral of music that was composed there. i wrote a book on some of the monophonic or single voice chants. and it was one of the most exciting times in my life as a music historian and as a musician to be there. i remember as a young american graduate student, when i first finally came to paris and saw the cathedral, i fell to my knees and wept. this is our building, world wide. so those of us who are in the field of music are heartbroken. this has to do as well with those

of us who are organists because since the 15th century there have been great organs in the cathedral and i'm sure that is one of the major losses. olivier latry who is the organist who is there and in charge of the cathedral now must be totally devastated, as we all are. the great composer louis vierne was there from 1900—1937 and he died at the console. he fell over and made his final note with his face on the keyboard. so we have such a history of music in that building and our hearts and our minds and our souls are going out to the people of france and of paris today. margot, we can hear the passion in your voice. what have we lost?

well, the art historians can tell you what we've lost better than i can. i keep thinking of those 13th century windows. but you know, that cathedral was begun by louis vii and i wrote a book on chartres cathedral and his wife was chartraine and our video is featured there at the sculpture. this history begins right in the 1160s and the major part of the cathedral took about 100 years to be built. so this is the very time when it was that musicians were creating so much new music for that particular cathedral which was dedicated to the assumption of the virgin mary, that is august 15th. and louis vii had not been able to produce a male heir and when he did in 1165, it was philip augustus. so it was a celebration

of his own heir, his male heir, the only one he could produce by this chartrine woman, that led him to wish to have this monument and to connect it to the feast of the assumption which was close to the time when his male heir was born. so much of the music is written for the virgin mary that we have studied and it was there at the cathedral of notre dame that musicians learned how to write down precise rhythms for music, for musical repertoire. so the place of this cathedral as a cradle of our musical guild is very much tied to the innovations that the composers of the notre dame school in the late 12th and 13th centuries lead and it's music that went throughout all of europe so for those of us who study european music, it's absolutely crucial. we find evidence of it in scotland, we find it in germany, we find fragments of this particular

notation going out throughout europe. and the music is glorious, of course, and so those of us who studied music history, that's one of the things that we celebrate with our students and that we concentrate on, and we have always had that building where we can turn to it and think about its acoustics and think about the ways in which mediaeval music fit into it. even though there have been many changes over time, we all know that. but still, to have it there has meant so much to us. so i pray that it's going to be restored and i'm so thankful that the walls still stand. she summed up absolutely beautifully

just what we will lose. it's the religious importance of this building, the historical significance to france, it's 850 yea rs old significance to france, it's 850 years old but also the element of the music, something that will never be experienced again. just talking us be experienced again. just talking us through it in such a beautiful way. just a recap of what has been happening. the fire is now under control. if we look at some of the live images from the centre of paris, throughout the night, the firefighters will be continuing to work but it looks like the water has actually stop at the moment on one of them. i'm being told that some of the other pumps are going. the aim is to bring the temperature down in order to pretend —— prevent any of fires from restarting. you can see the flashlights there, investigators

will be seeing what is salvageable. the extent of the damage. regardless of what they can salvage, it's lucky they were able to get sunny a rtefa cts they were able to get sunny artefacts out. the devastation speaks for itself. this is indeed a cultural and historical loss and personally, i am a christian and a catholic and seeing the notre dame cathedral being engulfed by fire i am devastated and shocked. i've been to the cathedral a few times, i've attended mass service there, i've made there and i've even attended thursday and good friday services at the notre dame cathedral. i'm really very sad to see this happening. i'm

really sad and heartbroken. lovely works of art have been destroyed in this lovely piece of architecture in central paris. it really saddens me to see what has happened to the notre dame cathedral. it's crucial to remind everybody that this is holy week. it's one of the most significant times in the christian calendar but some of those really important relics, the true cross, a part of the cross that is believed to have been the one on which christ was crucified and also the crown of thorns he wore the crucifixion. there are no words to explain the significance of this to christians, many works of art were saved, so much wasn't but the main

structure is safe, the investigators will be looking to rebuild what is a building that with seen so much in history. hello there, good morning. there's more spring sunshine and more spring warmth on the way as we head towards the easter weekend. the weekend just gone was quite chilly, temperatures 10—12. an easterly wind and the air coming all the way from the baltic. look what happens over the next few days. a lot of that blue, cold air gets pushed away and it really heats up across essential parts of europe and that is where we are going to get our weather coming from. we will be developing this south—easterly breeze and it will be warming up everywhere. mid 20s perhaps by saturday. on monday, in the sunshine, it felt pleasant enough. likewise in liverpool, merseyside. we also had this cloud coming in very slowly from the west

which has been bringing with it patchy rain and drizzle. earlier on it was windy as well in northern ireland and here in cornwall, unseasonable weather. the winds are easing down and the rain is edging its way eastwards. the skies are filling with cloud. rain from northern ireland heading across to wales and the west country. the rain petering out to a certain extent. the rain is lighter and patchy. heading into eastern scotland and eastern england heading to be dry a lot of cloud around. the winds won't be as strong on tuesday but still an onshore breeze coming into northeast scotland. a little bit on the chilly side. under the cloud, temperatures typically ten or 13. a touch higher in the london area if it brightens up. more sunshine on the way on wednesday. some mist and fog around. some patchy cloud developing and you could just squeeze out a light shower. generally it is drier,

more sunshine and more warmth as the bridges climb to 17 or 18. it is set to get warmer over the coming few days. still high—pressure — make high—pressure coming up from scandinavia. not only is it warmer coming up from central europe but more sunshine around as well. the peak of the temperatures will be on saturday and it could get 2a or 25. then starts to cool down a little bit and we may see some rain 00:13:50,519 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 arriving in the north—west.