Sharjah24 - Reuters: Police and fire officials in Canada on Sunday were searching the rubble of a Montreal building for seven missing people believed trapped after flames engulfed the site last week.
Flowers were left across a courtyard from the beige stone building in the historic Old Montreal district as workers using a crane tried to secure the badly damaged three-storey structure on Sunday afternoon.
It took more than 100 firefighters to contain the fire at the building, which broke out on Thursday morning and left several injured, said Marie-Eve Beausoleil, a spokesperson for the city's fire department, the Service de securite incendie de Montreal.
Montreal Police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said investigators had reason to believe there were victims inside.
"These are extremely trying times for the families of the missing and the injured," said Alain Vaillancourt, a Montreal city council executive committee member responsible for public security, in a statement.
"The current priority is to secure the scene to allow the search for the victims."
Apartments in the building were used both by long-term residents and guests who were staying there short-term after booking lodgings through Airbnb ABNB.O, Beausoleil said on Saturday.
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