Fire broke out in a 15th-Century cathedral in western France early Saturday, shattering stained glass windows and destroying the grand organ.

The blaze at St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in Nantes, about 200 miles from Paris, took more than 100 firefighters several hours to bring under control, Reuters reported. Authorities suspect arson.

Jean-Yves Burban had just opened his news stand when he heard a bang. He ran outside to see huge flames shooting from the Gothic structure.

“I am shook up because I’ve been here eight years and I see the cathedral every morning and evening,” he told Reuters. “It’s our cathedral and I’ve got tears in my eyes.”

St. Peter and St. Paul was completed in 1891, built over five centuries, The Associated Press reported.

The cathedral had been damaged in World War II by Allied bombings. A fire in 1972 ravaged the roof, which was eventually replaced with concrete.

“It is a part of our history, a part of our heritage” Nantes Mayor Johanna Rolland told reporters. “We all have these images in mind, this story in our hearts, but at this stage the situation does not seem to be comparable to that of 1972.”

French Prime Minister Jean Castex and French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin surveyed the damage later in the day.

Flames broke the stained glass windows between the cathedral’s two towers and charred the organ, called the “soul of the cathedral” by parishioners. The instrument had survived the first fire.

“The damage is concentrated on the great organ which appears to be completely destroyed. The platform on which it is located is very unstable and risks collapsing,“ Gen. Laurent Ferlay, head of the firefighters in the Loire Atlantique area, told reporters.

Saturday’s blaze comes a little more than a year after the massive fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but local fire chief Laurent Ferlay downplayed any comparison.

“We are not in a Notre-Dame de Paris scenario,” Ferlay said. “The roof has not been touched.”