As flames threatened to engulf Notre Dame on Monday night, Parisians came together to save the cathedral which has been the beating heart of this city for nine centuries.

A human chain was quickly formed of priests, politicians, and churchgoers - the people who cared most for Notre Dame - all working to save irreplaceable relics from the inferno.

Along the line they passed artefact after artefact, including the Crown of Thorns (a band of rushes said to be from the original crown of thorns placed on Jesus’s head during his crucifixion, one of Notre-Dame’s most treasured relics), and the True Cross and Holy Nails — a purported fragment of the cross, and an original nail with which Jesus was crucified.

Jean-Francois Martins, Paris’s Deputy Mayor for Tourism and Sports, told how he and others on the scene jumped into action to salvage the trove of art and artefacts housed inside the cathedral. “We made a human chain, with our friends from the church, to get all the relics as quick as possible," he said.

At the end of the chain, and emerging as one of the heroes of the day, was a priest who is said to have rushed into the burning cathedral to recover the sacred Crown of Thorns.