Paris.- The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the two false bomb alerts that forced the evacuation of the emblematic Eiffel Tower and its surroundings last Saturday, judicial sources informed EFE.
“The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office has referred to the 7th district police station an investigation into threats to commit crimes against people and disclosure of false information in order to make believe that dangerous damage to people is going to be committed or has been committed”, said sources to EFE.
These infractions are punishable by up to two years in prison and fines of 30,000 euros, according to French law.
The alerts were identified by the Pharos platform of the Ministry of the Interior, in charge of pointing out possible crimes on the Internet. Specifically, these two potential threats were found on the websites jeuxvideo.com and moncommissariat.fr.
The first alert went off around 1:00 p.m. (11:00 GMT) on Saturday and was not lifted until 3:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT), a time when the Police deployed bomb squads and both the Eiffel Tower and nearby areas were evacuated by caution.
The area reopened to the public once the alarm was dismissed, but late in the afternoon – at approximately 7:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. GMT) – the incident was repeated again. In this case, normality returned to normal around 9:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT).
The evacuations affected both the three floors of the tower and the restaurant and the square around the structure, 330 meters high and located in the VII district of Paris.
With almost six million visitors in 2022, the iconic “Iron Lady” is one of the most frequented monuments in the world.
