Innocence before the inferno: Tourist searches for ‘father and child’ she photographed playing together outside Notre Dame just before fire so she can share their beautiful moment
- Tourist Brooke Windsor pictured unknown man and little girl outside Notre Dame
- Image shows the man swinging a young child in front of cathedral just before fire
- Windsor posted the image on Twitter in a bid to track down the man and the girl
A tourist who took a picture of a man with a little girl in front of Notre Dame cathedral just before it caught fire has launched a bid on social media to track him down.
Brooke Windsor photographed the unknown man swinging the child with the famous medieval landmark in the background.
The image shows the man playing with the girl in front of the two towers of the cathedral around an hour before it went up in flames.
Windsor, who was visiting Paris from her native Michigan, posted the picture on Twitter on Monday night shortly after the fire destroyed the historic building.
She now wants to track down the mystery man to share the playful image taken during the final moments of the cathedral’s doomed spire.
Brooke Windsor pictured this man twirling a girl thought to be his daughter in front of Notre Dame just before the cathedral caught on fire
Onlookers were shocked to see the cathedral’s famous spire collapse into the Notre Dame roof after the structure caught fire on Monday evening
The 23-year-old wrote: ‘I took this photo as we were leaving #NotreDame about an hour before it caught on fire.
‘I almost went up to the dad and asked if he wanted it. Now I wish I had. Twitter if you have any magic, help him find this.’
The was taken was taken at around 5.57pm and the fire started 53 minutes later.
When asked about the photo, Windsor clarified that she did not know for certain what the relationship was between the man and young girl but assumed it was a father-daughter relationship.
She added in a separate tweet: ‘I do not know for sure if it was a dad and daughter, it’s simply the dynamic I observed from them while debating on interrupting this moment. It may be an uncle, brother, friend, who knows until we find them.’
So far the tweet has been shared nearly 80,000 times and liked by more than 150,000 people across the world determined to help track down the pair.
Brooke Windsor appealed on social media to try and track down the man she pictured in front of Notre Dame before it caught fire
Notre Dame cathedral after the inferno was brought under control. The blaze claimed its historic spire and roof, but spared its bell towers
The blaze erupted in the medieval UNESCO world heritage landmark in the French capital on Monday, sending its spire and roof crashing to the ground as flames and clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.
The fire, which at one point threatened the entire edifice, was brought under control early on Tuesday about nine hours after it broke out.
Paris fire commander Jean-Claude Gallet said a major accomplishment of hundreds of firefighters was stopping the flames from spreading to the north tower belfry.
Gallet said two-thirds of Notre Dame’s roofing ‘has been ravaged’.
The fire also brought down the church spire that extended 315-feet high.
Some of the world’s most priceless relics were saved as the inferno rage last night when firefighters formed a human chain inside the fire ravaged building.