A fire broke out Monday afternoon inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
Photos and videos on social media showed flames and smoke rising from the 850-year-old Gothic cathedral and the scaffolding surrounding it.
The area around the massive church has been cleared, and firefighters are working to control the blaze, authorities said.
“Notre Dame Fire in progress,” a tweet from police said. “Avoid the area and facilitate the passage of emergency vehicles and intervention of the @prefpolice.”
The cathedral was undergoing renovation, which may have been been related to the cause of the fire, officials said. Construction was completed in the 13th century and the landmark draws over 13 million visitors annually. After French revolutionaries damaged it, Notre Dame was restored in 1844 and 1864, but afterwards fell into disrepair again.
"Assuredly, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Paris is, to this day, a majestic and sublime edifice," Victor Hugo wrote in his 1831 novel, “Notre-Dame of Paris,” which helped spur the previous effort to restore the church. "But noble as it has remained while growing old, one cannot but regret, cannot but feel indignant at the innumerable degradations and mutilations inflicted on the venerable pile, both by the action of time and the hand of man."
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