went 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 i'm bored. this is the day. it's a thousand years of history it represents friends. that i feel a care that is destroying that was it looks just to me. i

feel the cathedral has been snatched away from a. cultural heritage its fronts 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 millennium 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 found 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 our works and outside to contain the blaze as it engulfed the roof now saddam is one of the world's most famous churches holding cultural treasures from nearly a thousand years of french and catholic history. and the inferno brought french president emanuel mccrone to 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 faizal 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 day breaks there may be a reason for cautious optimism right. yeah there is some

reason for that the head of the firefighters of paris said that they hoped you know that they were able to contain the fire and they could save the structure of the main structure off the can see through because the fear was that once the fire would have eaten from the roof down through to the stone vault that keeps up the inner roof off the cathedral then the forces of gravity and pull would sort of press the walls of the kids to the side and the whole edifice with 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 there 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 and firefighters are still working still for a 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 a casino drill that has that work has now stopped so they seem 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 over the centuries we made it great and we improved it. so i say to you very solemnly they see feeling. this 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. with. i'm joined now here in the studios with my colleagues emma charles and william glue both of you welcome. let's talk a little bit about. what we just heard from the president just determination this

resolve that notre dame must be rebuilt do you share their well. it was in the process of being renovated anywhere is just going to take much longer now that such such an extensive damage has been done of course it has to be reviewed 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 nick get top latin for it floats and it doesn't see you know without thinking 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 rebuild its afforded to the idea that the reasons the

french definitely europeans is definitely obvious hope every people in the crypt of the first pair 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 nostradamus it has also been present in so many books french the church or has been singing the praises of kitty jail and not least a veto ago is not a band of happy so of course it's a very highly symbolic cultural heritage for france and to some extent also when i so tonight this pyro 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've talked to indeed being in the us have by many european cities a symbol of the europeans. 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 mark a looking out 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 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. though.

the money that comes following this fire is probably going to have to make up for the deficiencies that took place before the fire. what is is this is a wake up call for the different i think it's wake up call also think this guy. this is going to look bad on a man or a micro even if it's not his fault that this fire happened that it happened under his presidency and he's popularity is ever decreasing and now at this happens but the lack of friending in french culture and heritage doesn't started was my cross presidency it has been it has been decreasing for decades and though in my name across presidents in my pay the 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 variance. it 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 been pedestrian. 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 hard to by bad luck in a way he had 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 catastrophe 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 ease turning 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 a big. our no 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 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 into something that you can work with is that you can sort of you know how can you turn the burning down off the national symbol of not true in the heart of paris into two to four hoping.