Work starts to remove melted Notre Dame scaffolding

When the fire broke out in April last year, there was already work in progress on the roof of the cathedral, with a big structure of scaffolding in place around the spire, the BBC reported on Monday.

While the spire did not survive - it crashed down at the height of the conflagration - the scaffolding did.

In the intense heat, a lot of it melted and became attached to the building, like a great metal parasite.

From Monday, the exceedingly delicate operation of cutting away this metal, all 20 tonnes of it, got under way.

The damaged scaffolding has been surrounded with yet more scaffolding, and an enormous crane has been brought in.

Teams hanging from ropes 40 to 50 metres in the air will be using electric saws to carve away the encrusted material piece by piece.

The building is still not entirely out of danger and only when the latest operation is completed in three or four months' time, the authorities will start mulling about the real response to the disaster: reconstruction and maybe redesign, said the BBC report.

Since the fire, only two masses have taken place at the cathedral, both with reduced congregations.