A man was arrested on Thursday (August 17) after he jumped off Paris’ iconic Eiffel Tower with a parachute on, said the monument’s operator and the police.
The man, who as per news agency AFP, was an experienced climber, entered the monument’s perimeter shortly after 5.00 am (0300 GMT), well before its official opening.
According to the site’s operator Sete, even though the guards immediately noticed the man, he was quick enough to get to the top of the tower before anyone could catch hold of him, carrying the parachute in a backpack.
The moment he got around the top of the 330-metre-high structure, he jumped.
Police said that the man landed in a nearby stadium where he was arrested for putting the lives of others in danger.
“This kind of irresponsible action puts people working at or below the tower in danger,” Sete said in a statement.
The tower, which usually opens at 9:00 am, was slightly delayed due to the incident, said the operator Sete, further adding that it had filed criminal charges against the man.
Drunk American tourists found sleeping atop Eiffel Tower after dodging security
Two drunken tourists from the United States were on Monday (Aug 13) discovered sleeping atop the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris after evading security the night before, said the monument’s operator on Tuesday.
Security guards awakened the men “early morning” at the time they were making their routine rounds before the famous tourist spot’s opening time at 9:00 am, news agency AFP cited publicly-owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete as saying.
They “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were,” as per a Paris prosecutor.
The drunk American men had spent their outlawed night under the stars in an area which is generally not open to the public between the tower’s second and third levels, but “did not pose any apparent threat,” Sete further said.
As per a police source, the tourists jumped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the tower’s top after paying for the entry ticket around 10:40 pm on Sunday.
Firefighters, including a specialist unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to recover the intruders, the police source further added.
Both men were brought to the police station in Paris’ seventh district for interrogation, while Sete said that they would file a criminal complaint against the interlopers.
The incident delayed the famous site’s opening to the public for around an hour on Monday morning.
Last week, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated twice on the same day following hoax bomb alerts.
(With inputs from agencies)
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