Paris police briefly evacuate Eiffel Tower after bomb threat

PARIS (AP) — Paris police briefly evacuated the Eiffel Tower and blockaded the surrounding area after a phone-in bomb threat. An officer at the scene told The Associated Press that police found no sign of the threatened bomb. Police initially blocked off the streets below the tower and the bridge stretching across the Seine River on Wednesday morning, but later started lifting the barricades. The tower’s management said all tourists inside were evacuated after the threat. The 131-year-old tower gets about 25,000 tourists daily in normal years, though visits are down this year because of coronavirus travel restrictions. It occasionally closes because of suicide threats, bomb threats or strikes.