Fire breaks out in spire of Rouen Cathedral in northwest France

Paris — The famous medieval cathedral in the city of Rouen in western France was evacuated Thursday when a fire broke out in the spire. The Notre Dame of Rouen Cathedral is undergoing renovations and video from the scene showed thick smoke rising from the spire, which is partially covered in scaffolding.

Fire trucks raced to the scene to save the cathedral, made famous by impressionist painter Claude Monet who depicted the imposing structure in a series of paintings in the 1890s.

Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the Mayor of Rouen, which is in France’s northern Normandy region, said no one was injured in the fire.

A security perimeter was set up around the large cathedral, which was built starting almost 1,000 years ago.

It’s unclear how the fire started.

It comes just more than five years after a fire destroyed the roof of the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The enormous, meticulous project to restore that famous church continues in the French capital.