Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral

Billionaires and businesses continue to pledge vast financial sums towards the rebuild of the Notre Dame.

The latest commitment has come from French oil and gas company Total. The company's CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, tweeted it will put €100 million ($113 million) to the reconstruction efforts.

That matches the pledge made by French billionaire François Pinault earlier. The family of Bernard Arnault, the French business magnate who owns luxury goods and fashion house LVMH, has promised to contribute €200 million ($226 million), and tech company Capgemini also said it is contributing €1 million.

The total amount pledged by French businesses and business leaders is so far is €401 million ($453 million). That number doesn't include the €50 million euros ($56 million) put towards the Cathedral by Paris city hall.

Amid the smoldering rubble, the candles inside Notre Dame were still burning.

CNN has exclusively obtained a series of remarkable photos taken inside the cathedral shortly after a fire partially destroyed large portions of the historic building.

They show that some candles -- lit by visitors offering prayers in the hours before the blaze began -- were still burning in the nave in the wake of the devastating blaze.

They also reveal blocks of white rubble scattered across the cathedral floor, embers falling from a hole in the roof, and water still issuing from a hose pointed inside the building.

The pictures, believed to have been taken in the early hours of Tuesday morning and passed to CNN, paint an eerie picture of one of France's most famous and visited sites.

See them below.

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What these photos from inside Notre Dame tell us about the fire

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has sent a message of condolence to French President Emmanuel Macron following the fire at Notre Dame.

The monarch said she was "deeply saddened" by the blaze and sent her "sincere admiration" to the firefighters who tackled the fire.

Here's the full message:

Paris' fire department has released a video documenting their efforts to extinguish the Notre Dame fire on Monday evening and through the night.

The footage shows dramatic close-up scenes of the fire, as well as overhead shots which illustrate the extent of the blaze.

Firefighters extinguished the fire after battling it for nine hours, the department said earlier. Around 400 firefighters were involved.

Watch the video below.

French newspapers are predictably dominated by images of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral ablaze and swathed in smoke on Monday evening.

Le Monde released a special edition of its paper as the cathedral -- the name of which translates to "Our Lady" -- became engulfed in fire. "Our Lady, our history," their front-page headline reads, alongside a poignant picture of a boat passing by on the Seine as the historic building burns.

"Our Tragedy" reads the front page of Libération, which features a photograph of the dramatic moment when the Cathedral's gothic spire collapsed.

A similar image adorns the front page of local newspaper Le Parisien, alongside the headline "Our Lady of Tears." The paper is owned by LVMH, the fashion conglomerate whose CEO, Bernard Arnault, earlier pledged a €200 million ($226 million) donation to help fund rebuilding efforts.

French Catholic newspaper La Croix also showed the spire's collapse on its front page, accompanied by the moving headline: "The heart in ashes."

Valérie Pécresse, the President of the Île-de-France region in which Paris lies, has told reporters that the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral was an accident.

"This was an accident. It wasn’t intentional," she said.

Pécresse said the region would unlock an emergency fund of €10 million euros ($11.3 million) to help in the rebuild efforts.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, says she is planning a "major international conference of donors" to raise money for the effort to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral -- as multimillionaires continue to pledge vast sums towards its reconstruction.

The family of Bernard Arnault, the French business magnate who owns luxury goods and fashion house LVMH, has promised to contribute €200 million ($226 million).

The donation comes after French billionaire François Pinault pledged €100 million ($113 million) to the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged cathedral.

Hidalgo said on Twitter that she is ready to host a fundraising event at Paris City Hall, adding that the event would attract patrons from "all over the world."

The mayor also said she will mobilize a fund she started for the city in 2015, and noted that the city has a budget of 80 million euros already in place for the restoration of its churches.

Firefighters have extinguished the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, after battling the blaze for nine hours, the city's fire brigade said earlier.

The fire broke out Monday evening and raged for several hours before 400 firefighters, working with skill and precision to avoid further damage to the medieval landmark, managed to bring it under control.

Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, has called on all 28 member states of the European Union to help France rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral.

Tusk sent "words of comfort and solidarity" to the country. He referenced his own hometown of Gdańsk in Poland, which suffered heavy bombing during World War II.