The gas, which caused an explosion in early December and then the collapse of a building in Sanary-sur-Mer (Var) killing three people, had been opened by human intervention, AFP learned Tuesday (January 4) from the prosecution. from Toulon.
"
Human intervention does not seem to be in any doubt but it will be necessary to determine whether it is voluntary (in particular suicide) or involuntary (negligence or other)
", said the interim prosecutor of Toulon, Dominique Mirkovic, questioned by AFP.
Read alsoSanary in shock after a building collapsed
The three-story building, located on the port of Sanary-sur-Mer, collapsed in the middle of the night on December 7 after a gas explosion.
A woman and her baby on the top floor had been pulled alive from the rubble in the morning.
The father, in his thirties, was deceased.
The bodies of a 91-year-old woman and her disabled 58-year-old son, living on the ground and first floors, were found in the rubble the next day, bringing the death toll to three.
The track of the gas leak or of a failure to maintain the gas distribution network therefore seems to be receding.
GRDF had carried out a check in October which had found no anomaly.