Five century old Maastricht city wall partially collapsed

Part of Maastricht's historic city wall collapsed along the Sint Pieterskade on Saturday night. The few meters high city wall collapsed over a width of 6 meters. The cause is not yet clear. Maastricht plans to quickly rebuild the estimated five-century-old wall, responsible alderman Gert-Jan Krabbendam said on Sunday, NU.nl reports.

The fire brigade used heat meters to search for victims under the debris on Saturday night. No one was found, so it seems the collapse did not hurt anyone, a spokesperson for the fire brigade said to ANP. The area around the hole in the wall is cordoned off, as it can not be guaranteed that the wall will not collapse further.

According to Krabbendam, plans to rebuild the collapsed wall will be made this week. This specific piece of wall was already scheduled for restoration. "There was even scaffolding there last year, but then we noticed that the wall was bulging. We first wanted to know why that was", the alderman said, according to NU.nl. The wall was set to be renovated this fall. "Unfortunately, the wall caught up with us."

In spite of the lint barring access to the collapsed area, many people went to look at the hole on Sunday, Krabbendam said. "This has now become a real Instagram spot." He warned people not to do so. 

Staat Lodewijk XIV weer voor de poorten van #Maastricht ? Het lijkt wel of een Franse kanonskogel een bres heeft geslagen in de Maastrichtse stadsmuur. Het beleg van Maastricht was toch in juni 1673. pic.twitter.com/gZ90ugYnf0

— Martijn van Helvert🇳🇱🇪🇺 (@Martijncda) March 24, 2019