Eiffel Tower evacuated after bomb threat
General view of Paris at dusk with the Eiffel Tower and the Hotel des Invalides prominent on June 10, 2008 in Paris, France.
The Eiffel Tower has been evacuated after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat.
Paris police said almost 1400 people were evacuated following a request from tower operators after the threatening call was received Saturday. Police used sniffer dogs to search the monument for explosives and set up a wide security perimeter.
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The call was received at 7 p.m. local time and warned of a possible attack at 9:30 p.m. local time. Police said it came from a telephone booth in a Paris suburb.
Security guards were also ordered to leave the tower, a decision said to be unusual.
But security has recently been stepped up across France because of concerns of threats to the country over its military campaign in Mali.
The Eiffel Tower has previously been evacuated for such warnings — at least once last year and twice in 2011.
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