Rescue workers continue to search smouldering debris for more people after suspected explosion, as manslaughter investigation opened

Rescue workers have recovered a sixth body from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Marseille, as emergency services battled difficult conditions to look for missing people.

More than 24 hours after a suspected explosion at the building, where people had reported a strong smell of gas, dozens of rescue workers and dogs worked among the debris and rubble as a fire still smouldered underneath.

Removal of bodies ‘will take time’, says fire department, as blaze under rubble hampers rescue efforts in French city

Two bodies were found in the rubble of a building that collapsed in Marseille following a major explosion, French authorities said early on Monday, as rescue workers scrambled to find at least six people still unaccounted for.

The discovery of the bodies came about 24 hours after the blast brought down the four-storey building in the Mediterranean port city in southern France.

First meeting since pension changes were presented in January was over in an hour, and unions emerged calling for more protests

Hundreds of thousands of people across France are expected to protest on Thursday against Emmanuel Macron’s rise in the minimum pension age from 62 to 64, after talks between trade unions and the prime minister failed to ease tensions.

France will face another day of strikes affecting transport, schools and refineries, amid anger over the government’s use of an executive order to push through the pensions changes without a parliamentary vote last month.

Baroque music and performing arts group performed Pergolesi’s lyrical sequence Stabat Mater combined with pole and dance acts

A French priest has received death threats after a sold-out pole dance performance that the local paper called “sexy” was held in his church.

Daniel Boessenbacher, the priest at the Protestant Saint-Guillaume church in Strasbourg, eastern France, told AFP he had alerted police to the threats after receiving two anonymous letters.