Notre-Dame: Family in viral photo found after search

Image source, Brooke Windsor

Image caption, Brooke Windsor says she took the photo shortly before fire broke out at Notre-Dame cathedral

A family pictured outside Notre-Dame cathedral minutes before the fire erupted has been found after a viral search.

Brooke Windsor, 23, says the father and child she photographed about an hour before the blaze have come forward.

Her photo, showing them playing in front of the 850-year-old landmark, was shared widely on Twitter.

She told the 大象传媒 she wanted to share the "memory" with them, prompting an international hunt.

Skip Twitter content
Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter and before accepting. To view this content choose 'accept and continue'.

Warning: Third party content may contain adverts

End of Twitter content

Confirming they had been found, Ms Windsor tweeted: "The search is over! The photo has reached the dad and family."

The man and his family, Ms Windsor says, do not wish to be identified.

Instead, Ms Windsor says he wrote a message to her, which reads: "Thanks again for that beautiful photo, we will find a special place for it."

Ms Windsor's tweet was shared more than 240,000 times and liked 467,000 times, with people across the world joining the hunt to find them.

Her poignant photo was described as "historic" and a "special moment in time" by Twitter users as the extent of the damage to Notre-Dame shocked the world.

France's President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to re-build the cathedral. More than 鈧800m ($902m; 拢692m) has already been pledged to help reconstruct the Unesco World Heritage site.