French president pledges to rebuild Notre Dame

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral and says he is seeking international help to do it.

Macron said Monday after the French capital's fire chief said the emergency at Notre Dame had shifted into a monitoring and mop-up operation, "The worst has been avoided although the battle is not yet totally won."

[PHOTOS: Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral on fire]

Macron said a fundraising campaign to restore Notre Dame would be launched Tuesday and he called on the world's "greatest talents" to help.

Paris fire officials saved the city’s iconic Notre Dame de Paris cathedral from total destruction on Monday after a massive fire engulfed the 865-year-old Catholic church.

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The basic structure of the building was saved, fire officials said, according to the BBC.

Earlier Monday, the massive blaze destroyed the 315-foot spire on the top of the medieval Gothic church and spread to one of the building’s landmark rectangular towers.

[READ: Notre Dame Cathedral fire: Structure saved from total loss, fire chief says]

The building was undergoing renovations and CNN reported the blaze, which spread quickly, may have started in an attic at the church.

While hundreds of fire crews were able to prevent the total destruction of one of Europe’s, if not the world’s, greatest landmarks, the devastation to the building was massive.

The first pictures of the ruination inside shows just how extensive the damage was.

Associated Press