Samuel Osborne, Chris Baynes, Jon Sharman, Zamira Rahim
Notre Dame fire: Parisians hold huge vigil at cathedral as monuments around the world light up in solidarity
Parisians gathered in front of Notre Dame on Tuesday night, at a vigil where music was played and attendees prayed for the future of the cathedral.
The fire which devastated the cathedral is thought to have been caused by an accident rather than arson, the Paris public prosecutor said.
Investigators are working to establish what led the centuries-old architectural masterpiece to be consumed by flames on Monday evening.
Fifty investigators are working on the probe and will interview workers from five companies, hired to renovate Notre Dame’s roof.
Remy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, said the inquiry into the Notre Dame fire would be “long and complex”.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, committed to rebuild the church within five years, in a short public address on Tuesday.
He called for unity and said Notre Dame would be restored to be “even more beautiful”.
“We can do it and once again, we will mobilise,” he said.
Wealthy French benefactors have pledged hundreds of millions of euros to rebuild the famous building after its roof and spire were ravaged by the blaze.
On Tuesday night, monuments around the world were lit up in the colours of the French flag, in a show of solidarity with Paris.
One World Trade Centre, the dome of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud inside the Duomo in Turin and the La Fenice theatre in Venice, were among the monuments taking part in the global gesture.
If you would like to see how the Notre Dame fire unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:
Pope Francis has said he is "praying for French Catholics and for the people of Paris in face of the terrible fire which has ravaged Notre Dame cathedral", the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
A French cultural heritage expert has said he believes France no longer has trees big enough to replace the ancient wooden beams destroyed by fire last night.
Bertrand de Feydeau, the vice president of preservation group Fondation du Patrimoine, told France Info radio that the roof had been constructed with more than 800 years ago with beams taken from primal forests.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said the cathedral's roof cannot be rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire because "we don't, at the moment, have trees on our territory of the size that were cut in the 13th century."
He said the restoration work will have to use new technologies to rebuild the roof.
Countries around the world have expressed solidarity with France in the wake of the fire.
Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri expressed sadness over the blaze, which he described as a "heritage and humanitarian disaster".
He added in a tweet late on Monday that Lebanon expressed strong solidarity with the "friendly French people".
A Philippine presidential spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said "Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of France as well as in solidarity with the rest of the world for this heartbreaking incident."
South Korean president Moon Jae-in called for the world to come together to rebuild the Paris landmark. He said: "Our love for humanity will be illustrated in a more mature way in the process of reconstruction."
A spokesman for Paris firefighters has said that "the entire fire is out" at Notre Dame.
Gabriel Plus said emergency services were currently "surveying the movement of the structures and extinguishing smouldering residues" in the 850-year-old cathedral.
Mr Plus added that now the fire is out, "this phase is for the experts" to plan how to make the building safe and prepare for restoration.
Holy See spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said that the pope ''is close to France" and that he is offering prayers ''for all those who are trying to cope with this dramatic situation".
The Vatican expressed its ''shock and sadness" at the fire that caused extensive damage to a cathedral that is ''a symbol of Christianity in France and in the world".
Here, architecture writer Oliver Bennett mourns what we have lost in the Notre Dame fire.
He writes: It is deeply jarring to see an important historic building go up in flames. In 1992, Windsor Castle was one such calamity, but the scale of Notre Dame eclipses that. Not for nothing does this edifice attract more than 30,000 visitors daily.
The western front is the absolute world-beater, the bucket-list photograph with those two 13th century towers framing that fateful spire – a symphony of line, geometry and proportion rising from Parvis Notre Dame or place Jean-Paul II.
Christian leaders around the world have been voicing sorrow over the Notre Dame fire, with Egypt's Coptic Church the latest to issue a statement expressing "profound sadness".
The head of Egypt's Copts, Pope Tawadroz II, described the blaze as a "huge loss for entire humanity" at "one of the most important monuments in the world."
Cairo's foreign ministry also expressed "great regret and pain" over the fire, citing Notre Dame's "historical and culture value" for France and world heritage.
Emmanuel Macron has suspended campaigning for the European elections following the Notre Dame fire.
French politician Nathalie Loiseau, who is spearheading the campaign for the president's LREM party, said the decision had been taken to mark this "moment of extreme sadness".
The campaign has been halted "until further notice", she tweeted.
