Eiffel Tower at night
The Eiffel Tower has re-opened for tourism after an anonymous call placed a bomb threat. The call came in around 8:20 pm local time, a police spokesperson stated.
French media reported police were combing through the famous monument looking for suspicious objects. Nothing was found, but for precautionary measures, around 2,000 people were evacuated from the 1,063-foot tower.
Paris’s most popular attraction usually closes at 11:00 pm but tourists and locals were seen still walking and riding bikes under the tower as late as midnight. Across town, an anonymous caller made another threat to the St. Michel RER commuter train station, near Notre Dame Cathedral. The train station was evacuated while police investigated the premises, but nothing was found.
A police representative, who refused to release his name due to department policy, stated that they had no further information at the time about the threats. There has not been a claim of who may be liable for the threats but this comes after a ban on Islamic face-covering veils passed in parliament this past Tuesday.
Bernard Sqaurcini, head of France’s counter-terrorism intelligence agency, stated to the Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that the banning of the Muslim veils in public has made the country a direct target for radical Islamic organizations. Though the ban has just passed, there were no indications that the threats could have been linked to such groups.