Police have also found seven discarded cigarette butts at the scene, it has been reported.

Interviews carried out by detectives since last week’s blaze have led to a number of confessions.

“Some workers admitted that they were smoking on the scaffolding, despite the strict ban,” says a report in Canard Enchaine, France’s leading investigative news outlet. 

While the cause of the fire is still considered accidental, any proof that a discarded cigarette butt led to the fire could result in a prison sentence.

A criminal inquiry began on April 15, the day the fire started in the medieval cathedral’s roof. 

The main suspects are renovators working for Le Bras Freres, a company based in eastern France which had won a contract to restore the spire.

The spire was lost in the blaze, along with most of the roof, although the Bras workers have insisted they were not on site when the fire started. 

Company spokesman Marc Eskenazi said: ‘‘Under no circumstances can a poorly extinguished butt be the cause of the Notre-Dame fire.” 

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