this is the news live from berlin tonight france is a nation in shock fire has engulfed the cathedral of notre dame in paris firefighters in the french capital are still struggling to contain the blaze which is already consumed one of the cathedrals historic spiers french president emmanuel mack wrong saying the scenes have brought the emotion of the entire nation. to paris for the latest news starts right now.

it's good to have you with us notre dame cathedral in paris a huge fire that started about two hours ago is still raging out of control right now the roof of the twelfth century gothic church has collapsed as has the delicate spire that once rose from the center of the roof firefighters are still on the scene no injuries have been reported so far president says that the blaze was taking a part of all of france's people with it you know initial reports suggest that the blaze may be related to ring the basin work which was under way at notre dame. well in paris near notre dame. is not a pun tail she is

a correspondent with the german daily does to dog show so i to not do you can you hear me i can yes. thanks for taking the time to talk with us talk to me a little bit about just what you're seeing right now. well actually no i left the area right around not for them because everything is blocked i am not spending in front of the sentiment that there is this church there which is like a ten minute walk some not for them a way where people are needing in front of the church and praying. to commemorate what is what is going on just ten minutes away from here and i was standing on the phone semi shen which is just opposite not put them off the church one it was burning. for the flames were actually still so big that you could just see them. against the backdrop of her beautiful blue sky because it's a beautiful spring evening here can you can you still see some flames now now do

you know now i can't. that doesn't mean that it's not burning anymore but this flames i think for like fifteen minutes where really really quite huge so that in a way it was like a disturbing firework where there was this mass of people that constantly reacted with like wounds and oh my god. to what they were seeing and that to me the smoke was changing all kinds of colors it was dark yellers are flat like a search feature one of my parents were were you standing near the cathedral not a year when people begin realizing that the church was on fire. they had already realized when i was there. reporting doing that were they just were they standing there with a congregating or were they trying to get away from because the crew well not all i

think it was martin everybody was in shock and not greedy i think all of us should have moved away from the cathedral because they were. burning pieces falling down tidy one but. because the wind was coming no way the people were not moving because i think everyone was in shock and. you could also see i mean that. a moment on a of our day when you can you could see that the flames like ten times because they were on all the screens around you everybody was filming what was going on but you also had. quite a few people crying actually i think it was partly fury who were in shock and worried about their children but also the forensic people who were just really hurt by what they were seeing you know have you been able to find out if you heard anyone confirm if there were people you know inside the church that there

were people who were trying to get out and you heard anything i said that in fact. i only heard rumors i can confirm anything. i am now i can only tell you what i what i saw i think people were taking pictures but it's reassuring each other no i can see the people in the pictures that wearing helmets firemen but that doesn't say anything about what was going on inside the church and that ok pintail a correspondent in france with the german newspaper the zoo georgia sides who are not here we appreciate you sharing your insights and what you're seeing right now it's very important thank you thank you. all right now here are some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world the international red cross has ended a media blackout to seek information about

a nurse from new zealand who's been missing in syria for five years the organization said it was acting on reports that louisa copy may still be alive she into syria drivers were abducted in the northwestern city of little while delivering aid supplies in two thousand and thirteen in japan the fukushima nuclear plant operator has begun removing fuel rods from a cooling pool it's a milestone in the slow process to decommission the plant which suffered a meltdown after a tsunami back in two thousand and eleven removing the rods is crucial to avoid a further disaster if another earthquake hits activists have been demonstrating at the london offices of oil giant royal dutch shell calling for action on global climate change protesters also briefly blocked several key locations in the british capital the events begin two weeks of climate change protest organized by a group calling itself extinction rebellion.

we want to get back down to that top story that breaking story about the fire and notre dame joining me now on the phone from paris is journalist john lawrence and john can you hear me ok. what can you tell me about what's going on right now well right now at. the. both this cathedral has collapsed the spirit in the center of the. roof has collapsed. this cathedral that took two hundred years to build is going up in flames this evening this is this cathedral which is built in eleven sixty three percent raise it was the highest building in paris towered over the other constructions and this is he it was the only building the in c.

as you approach paris so not as people approach paris and there are no sways in the trains and buses in the cars well it will see the trains and this great tearing. column of white and yellow smoke rising up and from one of the coming very fast the ruins of this great cathedral have you been able to confirm john if there were people inside of there been any injuries. there have been injuries on the the head of police mr nunez an epicenter there had not been injuries this i think i always wanted to look at when silence at the cathedral she's working personally. defun is supposed to have broken out ten to seven this evening that is exactly shot minutes after the cathedral door was closed the last mass took place in.

six i think sorry six o'clock and i think the the faithful will be out of the jewels just shortly before closing time the last tour is really not. close shortly before closing time so i don't you know leave anyone there when the front row cannot you know that is definitely you know good news in in this tragedy what about any speculation the chief heard about what could have caused this fire we know that extensive renovation work had begun. that's right what is the extraordinary things about. this this tragedy as you rightly cruel is the sixty three. well. of the roof collapse tonight just. three days ago when stations will do it during

regional southwest from sioux restoration they will just take it away so they will be safe from the museum point graduates fresh. kid john if you could stand by i want to pull in there my colleague we know a blue croft who's been following events. closely as well reaction has been coming in from world leaders right yeah i mean of course a man yamaha was among the first to have something to say just saying you know it's the emotion of the whole nation and thoughts are with all catholics who see this as a place of worship in all french and really all the people who have seen this is a symbol of europe and. america have the same thing as was and not just a symbol of catholicism or a symbol of france is really a symbol of europe and of really the west when you think about it the u.s. co-director the notre dame has been a unesco heritage site since one thousand nine hundred one and so of course you

know plays a large role in the funding of the upkeep and the maintenance and preservation of of this church in the u.s. for director have said that it's an immense a motion to watch this dramatic fire and of course that unesco stands by to assist in any way to. see what happens how long this fire will burn these kinds of structural fires tend to last quite a while it is one of the most visited sites on the planet right now and it's you know from the time of its conception construction to today we're talking about almost i'm a linear. and as i understand it what we've learned. night is the free. the original frame was wood which many would explain how quickly it winds up like this but. how much do we know about the relation work that was going on oh not too much i mean it was very substantial i think anyone who's been to paris in the last

several years has pretty much seen a constant image of the church wrapped in the cathedral wrapped in scaffolding it's been one big construction site for quite a long time which only adds to the dangers when you think about all the things that a construction site might have the kinds of flammable objects the kinds of the metal the wood the materials they bring and the tarps all of this is highly flammable so even if the structure from the outside looks quite quite mighty and quite made of firm stone on the inside as you know it's a lot of wood that spire that collapse was ninety meters tall so when you can imagine ninety meters of material falling into. the church the cathedral and then the roof on top of that it's rousing years of material a thousand years of remember it's it wasn't just built a thousand years ago that was it has gone through extensive renovations over the millennium you know and i think all up and we've made real time yeah exactly so this is it's quite a quite a moment to be watching let me pull journalist john laurenson back in who is in

here is john have you heard anything else about possible causes. i think there are two things. to lead if you know the first renovation work even to hear about names of the fire service has gone on record very quickly went on record saying it believes there is potentially a link between the renovation work that was being carried out and the fact that we can imagine. something of that nature is that chinese strange isn't it. this dysfunction breaking just after the. after the cathedral is as close and quite lengthy will people still be here at that time and this was getting quite late and i think there is something that's going to be high up in people's minds and we can't really know which is that notre dame cathedral cathedral center in

france has been the targets of. terrorist attacks in the recent past and in particular in september two thousand and sixteen a female group of islamists terrorists parked a car that they hoped to transform into a car bomb it contained six canisters of gas and three bottles of petrol they try answering make the thing go up. and close discover it but this is a target as well as i think the police who announced their investigation it was crew was building for leads there as well but we also we also want to reiterate that the fire authorities they have not mentioned any suspicion of fell play at this point correct that's right well they said is there is a potential link between the fire and the renovation work. i mean. you know no with the timing of this is you know you can't ignore the fact that this is in

the christian calendar this is a holy we just told sunday this coming sunday. we have good friday and then we have easter sunday so it is it is one of the if not the holiest weeks in the christian calendar right i mean this would have been the site for for large large crowds of worshipers and believers in the catholic church coming here to mark this whole long week of holidays so this is quite interesting timing but correlation is not causation we have zero evidence of anything it is far too early the fire is not even out you can even send investigators in unless someone who was there or a construction worker who saw something when it was a witness unless unless that were to happen we have it's far too soon to say why this might have happened i mean also very strange a manual come up mccollum was supposed to give his big speech tonight about. the

you know the country's been going through months of this national debate that's been sparked by the yellow vests protests and he was to give us a big give a big speech on where the country was and what policies he might be in acting or suggesting in response to these yellow vests protests over the last several months and that was canceled because of this so a lot of just weird weird interactions things coming together but that by no means by no mean means that there's any of these things are connected john let me ask you what are you hearing there appears i mean how is this being reported french television the french media i mean what are people saying about the timing of this tragedy. of that nature i mean i. i can tell you that the the the center of paris police there is a police station is situated eight hundred meters away and just in front of the

facade of the looks down cathedral and the policeman in that building that i'm going to be looking at several options the city you know i think for all of the people involved in the renovation work in the cathedral they are going to visit from the police they are going to be going through. initially interrogations to find out if there were there was possibly any sort of terrorist infiltration of the building workers that so that's one of the possibilities accruals. that you got a list i haven't seen very much speculation yet in these very early days is this fire has been is the regime for two hours inside is it this is a fast it has happened just like this like now so i think we surely to be fair to people to be standing up theories very much right. the first the first reaction for most people in france who owns this is terrorism this is terrorism in may not be

but i think that's what most people will see in these images the first time hearing this is for the first time that's what they'll think will we be noticed on social media as the first images were coming across in though we talked about this as well that people could not help but say this reminded them of past. events terror of where they were just stunned and all they could do was watch in disbelief especially when the spire collapsed and we saw on social media that we also we've been hearing it reminded people of nine eleven i mean we're talking about something completely different right the feeling of something that is is. something everyone can identify with right it is it's a global icon it's a global symbol regardless of the cause it's a dramatic event i know when i first saw the images i thought about it as well not because i thought it was terrorism there were because it's just a dramatic image that you watching it's a place i've been to it's

a place i've been inside of it's a place it's a place that has some meaning for me. from a cultural perspective and historic perspective and living here in europe not so far from paris because just like i'm not so far from new york when that when that happened on that new nine eleven so we're guard most of the causes and there's absolutely absolutely no reason to think this is terrorism we will let the police do their job of course they will investigate it as what they do but it is way too early to say why but simply from a sheer static just looking at what we're seeing and now you know where as it's getting darker and the images at least from the outside appear less dramatic than they were when everything was on the outside but we don't know how hot that fire is burning on the inside how long it might take and these are live but now these are live images too we want to remind our viewers if you're just joining us what we're looking at right now are live pictures from paris what you see there is the burning what remains of the notre dame cathedral in the heart of paris it caught fire

a rail and we understand around seven pm local time tonight and it was a fast blaze it's still going on right now but we're looking at hundreds of years french gothic architecture but also icon for the parisian infringe an even european identity that is going up in flames right now. john i want to ask you would you agree i mean is this just me this icon this what this represents that it made you also think of something like nine eleven when you first saw these images and heard the news. yeah i think you're right to stress the importance of this and this building. this building this this this the this symbol shows french people from european people to the western world

so i mean this is this is. this is the center of the french church the french church they make room sells the only stools here of the church which really is the churches that is the eldest daughter and so this is one of the great senses of christendom sixty crude and tonight it is crumbling in them in a matter of a couple of hours is there it's crumbling and then human crude at a good word you had a little bit of. let's little a difference and this is attach ourselves this parody account of ourselves this is really. as. your other guest said this is really a concept french identity that that as collapse tonight you know that it's

important to reiterate that as well i mean this is an image that we're seeing now going up in flames that is recognize the world over and it represents. in so many things is a many people. oh go ahead million. it's this is the most visited morning. in the most visited city in what. it will visit with and about. you know this is the economy really underestimate not really going to see is a true test and we had a report not so long ago about the need for renovations at the cathedral and the need was dire we were talking about hundreds of millions of euros or innovations renovations that have been put off year after year after year and i seem to

remember hearing. people who were assessing the structural integrity of the church talking about the fact that you were going to risk all types of disasters the longer you put these renovations off so we want to keep that in the in the foreground right now that this was a very very old gothic piece of architecture that needed serious serious renovation and that was taking place at the moment but it was still it was weak its structural integrity was not what it should be so we want to remind our viewers of that. no any other i mean again she said to reporters coming them going around the scene is meeting with police officials and again like i said he canceled his big dose of a big national address probably about now that he's postponed or delayed

indefinitely while he meets with police now we don't know what the situation with the fire for the under control or not but reports of also come in that there are rescue people in there trying to salvage some of the artwork and some of the priceless valuables in that cathedral because fortunately as we heard from john everyone seem all the puma's life seem to be out of there so people are out of danger which is good but and then the for the next priority is some of these priceless work of artists that are irreplaceable and again are also it's not just the structure of this building that has so much meaning to not just french and not just catholic but really all of human civilization but everything inside of it. it's really is priceless it is we realize that this is a developing story there is other news that we want to report so we will be coming back to this as we get updates but john lawrence in paris thank you very much and here with me in the studio where you know are glued to both of you thank you sudanese protest leaders

say they have blocked and attempt by the army to break up a sit in outside its headquarters more demonstrators are arriving to join the thousands calling on the country's military to hand over power to a civilian administration anti-government protests helped depose one time president omar al bashir last week they're now applying pressure to the military council that replaced. military intends to break up a protest that's lasted for days but despite army efforts to remove them this group is standing firm. we will stop here until we finish all the will we cannot leave this release. there are some of the sounds in sit downs capital khartoum demanding power for the

people it follows the military's decision last week to overthrow the country's unpopular leader of thirty years omar al bashir although it's what the masses wanted they're angry that the army has taken power for itself the new government a real civil government a content. people with qualifications know only military people better be able not only protect our country protect our new government we are here to remove the entire system a system that does not that god give service equally to the people a system that leaves people under poverty a system that does not also done as a country as a rich country with a human and natural resources to act as any other country in the world the new military council held its first meeting on sunday. over the weekend it also met

with sudanese opposition leaders promising to rule for a maximum of two years while democratic elections are organized. opposition forces are in charge of appointing the prime minister and his cabinet for civilian government calling on them to have united voice. but the crucial decision of who will become president is one the military council wants to keep for itself. back on the streets there are also demands that bashir is associates face justice. while the protests continue many are already painting a new picture of what life inside done could look like. freedom and you know i've decided. whether that vision one last depends on what the military decides to do next. fall from africa to the middle east now and the dire conditions facing

palestinian refugees following a policy change in the trump white house last year the united states cut off funding to a u.n. relief agency that provides services for about two million palestinian refugees in jordan sprawling camps including at jurong baka now the budget cuts have had severe impacts on the refugees lives as i ybor he and him reports. twenty seven year old ali enlistee roams the refugee camp or he was born and raised it was once his job to clean the streets here but now the garbage is left on collected she was one of around forty seven taishan laborers employed by the united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees or for short to keep the girish camp in jordan clean. in twenty eighteen the trump administration announced it would seize all funding to the agency so it has had to let employees

go including sanitation laborers like. the un agency was able to raise new funds from some forty other countries but still needed to reduce its hold budget by ninety two million u.s. dollars last year. with my financial situation is difficult and when my elderly father notes of deals i can't give it to him anymore. my dream is to go back to working for a new or i was self-sufficient. in the campus extremely dirty and in the coming summer months it'll only get worse. by lee has asked us not to reveal his identity . his refugee status doesn't allow him to work outside the camp his job was his only source of income to support his family of six. there are now only ten workers left to clean a camp with a population of thirty thousand as a result the camp is experiencing

a garbage crisis. of jordan's ten refugee camps for palestinians this one josh is absolute poorest an estimated fifty two percent of the residents here live under the national poverty line with the recent cuts to an era residents say conditions have reached an all time new low. camp is lacking in everything. the senator is situations very bad every day i have to clean the streets myself. we knew of to a different camp because it is the largest refugee camp for palestinians in jordan with a population of over one hundred thousand many families have been in the camp for generations here sanitation is not the only problem residents of houses with makeshift roofs like this one are especially vulnerable in the winter months. a father of two says he hoped would help with building expenses but they always cited a lack of funding he was forced to go into debt to pay for this metal cover.