Paris police barricade Eiffel Tower following phone-in bomb threat
Paris, Sept. 23: Paris police have blockaded the area around the Eiffel Tower after a phone-in bomb threat.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris was evacuated for two hours Wednesday after an anonymous caller threatened to blow up the great edifice situated in the heart of the French capital, police said.
Police cars and tape surrounded the streets below the tower and the bridge stretching from across the Seine River to the Trocadero Plaza.
Some tourists were still walking in the area, but it was unclear if any were still inside the tower on Wednesday.
Two police officers at the scene told The Associated Press that the operation was the result of a phonein bomb threat.
Eiffel Tower management did not respond to requests for comment.
After an inspection was carried out, nothing suspicious was found and the Eiffel Tower was able to reopen to visitors.
“A man phoned up, shouted 'Allah Akbar' and said he was going to 'blow up everything'” at the Eiffel Tower, said a police source, who asked not to be named.
A security cordon was put around the monument, traffic diverted and the Eiffel Tower evacuated at 12:15 pm (1015 GMT).
Its operator SETE said in a statement that after a thorough search nothing was found and the tower was able to reopen at 2:15 pm.
The 131-year-old tower gets about 25,000 tourists daily in normal years and about seven million visitors a year, some threequarters from abroad, but visits are down this year because of Coronavirus travel restrictions.
While the Eiffel Tower is scheduled to be open every day, it occasionally closes because of suicide threats, bomb threats or labour strikes.
The monument had reopened on June 26 after its longest closure since World War II forced by the coronavirus pandemic.