The Louvre in Paris has shut for ‘security reasons’ on one of the busiest days for tourists as France remains on a maximum Terror Alert today.
Bomb threats were sent to the museum, an unnamed police source was quoted as saying by local TV.
Footage shows hundreds of people being evacuated from its premises, located on the Right Bank of the Seine, in the centre of the capital.
A security perimeter has been set up with a number of police officers deployed to the scene.
A number of tourists took to Twitter to share videos of the ongoing evacuation.
‘We were evacuated calmly but a lot of people were leaving, so there was a bit of commotion and pushing and shoving at the exit,’ one said.
‘The Louvre received a written message stating there was a risk to the museum and its visitors,’ a spokesperson said after announcing the closure on social media.
‘We have decided… to evacuate and close it for the day, while we carry out the necessary checks.’
This comes as president Emmanuel Macros announced the mobilization of up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded yesterday.
Counterterrorism authorities are investigating the attack at the Gambetta-Carnot school in the northern city of Arras.
The suspect is a Chechen man who had attended the school and had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization.
The French government heightened the national threat Alert to ‘urgent’ amid the tensions in the Middle East caused by the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
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