‘No words can describe the pain’: Paris weeps for its beloved Notre-Dame

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has pledged to rebuild “the epicentre of our lives” after fire ripped through Notre-Dame cathedral and gutted the much-loved monument.

Some 400 firefighters managed to save the main structure of the 13th-­century Gothic masterpiece and its two bell towers as rapidly spreading flames threatened to engulf the whole of the building.

Mr Macron, speaking outside the still burning cathedral where two-thirds of the roof had been destroyed, including the spire, said he would seek international help and donations from the ­public for the reconstruction of one of Europe’s most iconic buildings.

“Notre-Dame is our history, our literature, part of our psyche, the place…