A firefighter has been seriously injured in the battle to save the Notre Dame cathedral from total destruction.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the emergency service worker was hurt in the massive blaze that has now been raging for more than three hours.
At around 10pm it was announced parts of the cathedral will likely be saved after fire officials earlier suggested the blaze could be too fierce to control.
At 7.40pm the fire had spread to the building's spire, causing French President Emmanuel Macron to cancel his planned national address.
At 7.53pm the spire had collapsed.
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The cathedral's two towers are reportedly safe from the fire by the 400 firefighters who had been scrambled to tackle the blaze.
Yael Lecray, a firefighter from Paris, told France 24:"It's a very high building so we can't go in with a ladder, it's a very large volume so the fire can spread almost everywhere at once."
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While it is not currently clear what caused the fire, there has been speculation it is related to ongoing construction work.
The renovations have meant that some of the cathedral's treasures had already been taken off site.
