Paris’s Eiffel Tower briefly evacuated after bomb threat

Paris police briefly evacuated Paris’s Eiffel Tower and blockaded the surrounding area Wednesday after a phone-in bomb threat.

All tourists inside the monument were evacuated after an anonymous caller phoned police Wednesday morning and said a bomb had been placed inside the tower, according to an official with the tower’s management company. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

A Valeurs journalist claimed the suspect yelled Allahu Akbar and said he would “blow everything up.”

The Parisian monument has been closed for three months during France’s coronavirus lockdown and was reopened in June.

Police blocked off the streets below the tower and the bridge stretching across the Seine River to Trocadero Plaza, but started lifting the barricades about two hours later. An officer at the scene told The Associated Press that police found no signs of the threatened bomb.

Some tourists were still walking in the area during the police operation, including a group speaking Russian and carrying a bottle of Champagne.