Eventful week at the Eiffel Tower
Police in Paris arrested a man for jumping off the Eiffel Tower with a parachute on Thursday, 17th August, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
A man scaled a pillar of the iconic landmark early morning local time, BFMTV reported, citing police sources.
The tower’s management company, SETE (Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel) said the man was detected in “less than a minute” by security after entering the site. Attempts by the tower’s intervention brigade to deter him proved unsuccessful and he went ahead with his jump from the attraction.
He landed on the roof of a nearby sports center before being arrested by police, according to BFMTV.
SETE lodged a complaint following Thursday’s incident. In their statement, they condemned “this type of irresponsible action, which endangers those working on or under the structure,” according to BFMTV.
The tower was slightly delayed in opening on Thursday morning due to the incident, according to BFMTV.
The incident is the latest in a series of security incidents over the past week at the site. Only three days earlier, two American men were discovered on Monday after spending a drunken night up the Eiffel Tower, the monument’s management told CNN on Wednesday.
The men, who had Sunday evening tickets for Paris’ famous iron tower, were “allegedly trapped there due to their excessive alcohol consumption,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told CNN. The tourists were found asleep early on Monday morning by Eiffel Tower security staff doing their rounds ahead of the monument’s opening, according to the prosecutor’s office and SETE, the operator that runs the site.
The tourists were then “quickly removed” and handed over to Paris police, SETE said in a statement to CNN. SETE will press charges for the intrusion, the operator said, although they admitted that the two men presented “no threat”.
“As no damage was found, the fine for trespassing on a historic or cultural site was dismissed,” the Paris prosecutor’s office added.
As a result of the men’s overnight stay, the tower opened late on Monday, SETE confirmed.
And on Saturday, the tower was evacuated for several hours over a bomb threat.
The three floors of the tower, as well as the courtyard, were evacuated while authorities assessed the threat, BFMTV reported. A large security perimeter was quickly established, and traffic was diverted, according to BFMTV, who added that a team of deminers were also bought on-site to assess the threat.
“It’s a usual procedure in this kind of situation, which is rare nevertheless,” a spokesperson for SETE, the operating company for the Eiffel Tower, said, according to BFMTV.
It has now reopened again to the public.
Source: External
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