Notre Dame cathedral is on fire!

[ithinkmycatistryingtokillme]

It's breaking on bbc news, from the pictures it's a major blaze!

Oh, no.

I am actually teary about this, and I'm not a crying person.

I work on medieval religion and it just feels so sad. Something that has been there nearly a thousand years, and now this happens at a time when we should be so capable of preserving historic buildings.

Well I do hope you are right. This is heartbreaking. Devastating for Parisians.

Very very sad. Trying not to cry. I know it's only a building, but this is so sad

@Frangipane I love York minster and that was my first thought. However all three if it's fires were stopped by the size of the central tower. And the fabric of the building was in much better shape. As the foundations were brand new.

Hard to believe that much devastation can happen in little more than an hour. I realise it wasn't exactly built to modern building regs, but still ...

Oh god this is heart 💔

OH wanted to visit here when we went to Paris in March and I told him we’d go next time. He is not happy with me

One of the most beautiful buildings I have visited. How utterly awful :(

So so sad. I visited ND after splitting with an arsehole of a bf. He worked for my friends husband. When I got to the top of the Bell tower I texted my friend and said I couldn't see Quasimodo. Quick as a flash she replied that he had left theirs 20 mins earlier.... I was in awe of its beauty and was lovely to see the gargoyles from the Disney film....

The flèche collapsing has made me cry.

If you want to cry, cry. This is an historic tragedy, that many people will mourn on so many levels. (Says someone who is blubbing rather a lot.)

I'm an atheist but Notre Dame is so much more than a church, it's a part of the history of a great country and part of our culture, literature, history and so much more.

Reporter on Sky saying he can't see any responders from his side. What is going on?

This is terrible.

Although can't believe some are asking ' What does it have ? '

Donald Trump has just tweeted suggesting flying water tankers are used! Wtf are flying water tankers? If he means the planes which put the massive fires out in America then I don't think Paris fire dept have many of those!

Not to mention that you can't drop a ton of water in a built up area. The weight of the water coming down in a built up city could be catastrophic surely?! It's not like when they use the in the US for wild fires in large expanses of forest and desert type area after all.

Weirdly my first thought on seeing this was how epic a live action hunchback film could be...

All that history gone, so sad this has happened hope nobody has been hurt.

Trump is such a Philistine.

Am an atheist but am in tears.

This will burn until there is nothing left, they don't appear to have any significant fire fighting capacity.

This is so tragic and no doubt preventable, its not like old buildings don't catch fire when building renovations are being carried out.

They will be lucky if anything survives. Its being reported that the fire spread to the surrounding area and its clearly no where near under control.

It will really hurt the psyche of the French I'm sure. Its not just a building. Its not just history. Its more symbolic than that.

So horrible to see. Notre Dame de Paris is one of my favourite books, I’ve read it so many times and even tho I’m not religious, I cried when I went purely because it was such a goal of mine to go and see the setting of my favourite book. Just glad I had the chance to go a couple of times.

Apparently the spire has collapsed

Bloody kicking self now that I delayed a trip to Paris. Carpe diem, eh? Bloody true.