VOA News 28 September 2010
French authorities are allowing visitors back to the Eiffel Tower just two hours after the landmark and surrounding park were evacuated upon a bomb threat.
Police told the French news agency, AFP, the warning had been lifted after they had meticulously searched the tower.
Visitors were ushered out of the area Tuesday, the second time this month that authorities cleared the Paris landmark following a terror alert.
Paris police said an anonymous caller had phoned in a bomb threat from a public telephone booth. Authorities have warned that France faces a serious threat of a terrorist attack.
Police on September 14 evacuated thousands of people from the Eiffel Tower following a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax.
National police director Frederic Pechenard told French radio earlier this month that threat levels in the country had hit a peak.
The bomb threats come amid the kidnapping of French nationals in Africa, claimed by North African al-Qaida militants.
The surge in actual and threatened attacks on France and French nationals comes after Paris passed legislation banning women from wearing the Muslim full-face veil.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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