Monday, the mayor of the French port city of Marseille, Benoit Payan, said "there is still hope" of finding survivors after a building collapsed in a major explosion.

Two bodies have been found in the rubble of the building, which crumbled after a blast early Sunday morning, and six people are still missing.

"If there are any living people left under the rubble, they must be safeguarded at all costs and this must be done in a surgical manner, if I may put it that way. And so it is stone by stone that we continue this work, that we will continue it all day. There is still hope and as long as there is hope, we will not stop. As long as there is hope for finding survivors, we will not stop and the Marseille firefighters will not stop," said Payan, at the scene of the disaster.