Seven people were slightly injured in an explosion that destroyed the lower half of a theatre in northwest Paris today.
The cause of the explosion at the Empire Theatre, often used for fashion shows and to film television programmes, was not immediately known, police said.
"The explosion took place without a fire on the bottom floor, and the structural damage is significant," a police spokeswoman said.
"The seven wounded, slightly hit, were cared for in a neighbouring cafe," she said.
Two of the injured were theatre watchmen, France's LCI television station said.
The facade of the building's lower front collapsed, exposing rubble, shattered glass and wood panelling. The facade of the theatre's upper floors appeared intact.
Local electricity and gas workers went to the scene, as well as hundreds of firemen, the police chief and a representative of the attorney general's office.