PARIS: Workers at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday (Jun 8) began the delicate task of removing tonnes of metal scaffolding that melted together during the fire that destroyed the monument's roof and spire last year, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

A lift carried workers into the middle of the tangled mass of some 40,000 tubes for a last evaluation, before others will be lowered by ropes from a crane overhead to start sawing apart the scaffolding this week, officials said.