Incident before the Olympic closing ceremony Man climbs Eiffel Tower and triggers evacuation
A man climbed the Eiffel Tower on Sunday, triggering a temporary evacuation of the Paris landmark. The man was spotted scaling the 330-meter-high tower in the afternoon.
11.08.2024, 21:12
12.08.2024, 07:13
dpa
"A person started climbing the Eiffel Tower at 2:45 p.m., police intervened and the person was arrested," a Paris police official told the AP news agency. Police escorted visitors out of the tower at around 3pm. It was not clear where he began his ascent. He was spotted just above the Olympic rings, directly above the first observation deck.
Some visitors who were briefly trapped on the second floor were allowed to leave the building about 30 minutes later.
The Eiffel Tower was the centerpiece of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, with superstar Céline Dion singing on one of its observation decks. The tower was not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was due to start at around 9pm at the Stade de France. More than 30,000 police officers were deployed in Paris and the surrounding area to secure the final Olympic competitions and the closing ceremony.
