up in flames today as the world watched just after seven pm local time the renowned notre dame cathedral was engulfed in giant plumes of smoke as flames ravage the medieval catholic church there is massive damage the spire has collapsed but firefighters say that the towers have been saved this symbol of the city of light tonight it shines no more. this is the day. it's a thousand years of history it represents friends. i feel like. god is crying now is it real just to me.

i feel the cathedral has been snatched away from. the. cultural heritage its front that's been hit today france is spending is to. go to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day with what paris and the whole world lost today a massive fire gutted notre dame cathedral this e.p. the catholic church this medieval monument to french gothic architecture has been a fundamental part of the parisian soul for almost a millennia or tonight it took only an hour for the flames to turn notre dame's wooden frame and its towering spire recognized the world over into a smoldering relic. a heart rending sight as the spire fell striking at a symbol of french culture in the heart of paris. the massive blaze spread on words

collapsing the roof and setting the wooden frame of the entire cathedral aflame. the alarm went off shortly before seven in the evening local time no saddam is burning spreading a brown black cloud across the sky her reasons and tourists looked on and heartbreak kept outside the security perimeter by authorities as ash fell in the vicinity. firefighters had a seemingly impossible task they had to work inside the building to save priceless artworks and outside to contain the blaze as it engulfed the roof you know saddam as one of the world's most famous churches holding cultural treasures from nearly a thousand years of french and catholic history. the inferno brought french president emanuel mark crawl into the scene he had been scheduled to give an address to the nation. he

tweeted that the fire awoke the emotion of the entire nation and that the cathedral was a part of all french people it's still unclear what started the blaze there's been no word about arson or foul play the fire may have started in connection with renovation work on the roof scaffolding could be seen around much of the church and just a few days ago statues were removed from the upper spire they at least will survive the flames but that's little consolation as the blaze burns on into the night having already done incalculable damage. well let's go to paris now our correspondent barbara visa is standing outside notre dame cathedral good evening to you barbara earlier tonight we and the rest of the world feared the worst total loss of the cathedral when daybreak so there may be reason for cautious optimism right. yeah there is some reason for that the head of the

firefighters of paris said that they hope to know that they were able to contain the fire and they could safe the structure of the main structure off the kid seat row because the fear was that once the fire wood is eaten from the roof beams down through to the stone vault that keeps up the inner roof off the kid seadrill then the forces of gravity and pull would sort of press the the walls of the kids to the side and the whole edifice of huge added fist would just break down in on itself we don't know yet how much damage they can see through us built from sandstone know how much damage this fire the heat has done to the sand stone how much structural problems down might be for the future but so far as we can see in

the back even though it's quite dark the main body of the church is still holding out and two three hours ago the flames you could really see them sort of a licking up against the sky and just burning bright red that has now died down firefighters are still working for huge cranes as throwing very strong fountains of water up against the church to cool it down they're working mostly on the northern side now the other side from the river way a boat had been throwing water up against it you see drill that has that work has now stopped so this seemed to be some focal points and the two towers seems to have seemed to have been saved so yes the firefighters are still working bought the hoping that they can sort of keep the main body of the cathedral standing and that is an important message for president emmanuel mccall and he visited the site tonight and his was a message of result. take

a listen. we succeeded in building this cathedral more than eight hundred years ago. and the centuries we made it great and we improved it. so i say to you very solemnly they see evening. cathedral all of us together. and this is without doubt part of french destiny. and it will be a project we undertake for years to come i am committed to it starting tomorrow we will launch a national fundraising campaign. along with. i'm joined now here in the studios with my colleagues. in glu crossed both of you welcome. let's talk a little bit about what we just heard from the president this determination this

resolve that nurtured a must be rebuilt do you share their well. it was in the process of being renovated anywhere and is just going to take much longer now that such such an extensive damage has been done of course it has to be a rebuild because it's one of the symbols of france it's something that french people identify with no matter where they stand in terms of prevention so rebuilding such a symbol is of course something that we also go along the lines of paris moto which is to look to our neck market top latin for it floats and it doesn't see that without sinking and it's something we had already. brought forward after the terrorist attacks in two thousand and fifteen and it's another in face of this new adversity i think this city of paris and french citizens will come together to to. to rebuild it's important to the idea that the region's french definitely

europeans definitely cooperation people in the crypt of the first regions are buried so it's at the very heart of paris and for many reasons it is dear to french people's hearts because when one thinks about paris one thinks about the f.o. tower about their lives and of course about not saddam it has also been present in so many books french literature has been singing the praises of kitty jail and not least of a togo is not. so of course it's a very highly symbolic cultural heritage for france and to some extent also when i so tonight the fire collapsing i felt that was the end of part of our civilization and i think that's a feeling that was shared by. many french people i talked to and i said by many europeans he's a symbol of the europeans in this what we saw and we have so much international

reaction sure i mean i think the shock and the sadness that has been expressed in in france has been echoed all around the world of course the vatican expressing shock and sadness as being a catholic cathedral barack obama has come out and spoke dollar trump has tweeted i'm going to calling this a a symbol of europe not just a french or a parisian side of importance but really a european side of importance so really it's just shock and sadness all around the world and now we're going to see how that shock and sadness get translates into support for rebuilding or whatever is going to come next from this this terrible tragedy because we know that the support the financial support for renovating and maintaining the cathedral was not that strong prior to the blaze and if it does come out as we think tonight that the cause was the. work then.

the money that comes following this fire is probably going to have to make up for the deficiencies that took place before the fire. and what is this is a wake up call for the different i think it's a wake up call also i think this guy. is going to look bad on a monday and micro even if it's not his fault that this fire happened that it happened under his presidency and his popularity is ever decreasing and now at this happens but the lack of friending in french culture and heritage doesn't started with mike ross presidency it has been it has been decreasing for decades and no ma'am across president same i paid a price for it was that symbolic highly symbolic building simply collapsing in the center of paris you let me take this to barbara barbara what do you say i mean could there be a political price to pay for the fire that we sold tonight or is this

maybe a wake up call for for you. there will certainly be a political price particularly for the mayor of paris i need to all go because it is not quite clear at this moment because why it took so awfully long to for a large number of firefighters to arrive at the scene i mean this is really in the middle of paris so could they get through traffic where they are alarmed too late what happened to all this will have to be investigated in the next days as some areas of central paris have confirmed deaths true nice there is less traffic which is nice for tourists but might be very difficult under circumstances like today so that's not quite clear but then also for president mike wrong in a way it seems an ominous sign i mean he has been sort of a haunted by bad luck in a way he has the yellow vest movement emerged before christmas and they've been

sort of pursuing him on and on and he's really had a hard time getting to grips with that and now this highly symbolic chasse trophy happens and many people who you don't have to believe in sort of black cats crossing your way to sort of find something that doesn't bode well for the french president he will have to work hard to sort of get the upper hand in this emotional least turn this into something where he can say let us look to the future and let us do better that is something that he is continuously promising and now he has another issue that he has to deal with and the crowd funding for the cathedral has already started and money is pouring in from as far as the united states and also one of the french big. and has pledged one hundred million to

rebuild and so the money will come together but it's the loss of the historic have break that is going to leave a lasting pain well. this serving as not only to generate sympathy across europe for france but as something of a rallying call for the european project could this actually have a positive boost moving towards the european parliamentary elections next month. it's difficult to say brand because you don't know how in event like this that is so emotional and will play out really it is difficult to sort of turn this politically into something that you can work with is that you can sort of you know how can you turn the burning down the national symbol of non-truth in the heart of paris. to to for hope.