Approximately 1,400 visitors were evacuated from the Eiffel Tower on Saturday as police brought in sniffer dogs to investigate a bomb threat phoned in from the suburbs of Paris, reports AFP.
Tourists were readmitted after about two or three hours when the threat proved false.
The French-led military intervention to take back Northern Mali from Muslim extremest groups has French anti-terrorism units on alert should those groups make retaliatory attacks.
In March 2011, police evacuated the Eiffel Tower following a bomb threat that also proved false. It was the fourth time the site had been evacuated.
At the time, France had received threats from extremist groups over troops in Afghanistan as well as a recently-passed law banning Muslims from wearing face veils in public.
In September 2010, two bomb threats were made on the Eiffel Tower. At the time, AFP reported that authorities had received intelligence that al-Qaeda’s North African branch was preparing an “imminent” attack in France.
Although the site has been evacuated before, the BBC reports that Saturday’s evacuation was unusual in that security guards were also ordered to leave.
Friends Read Free