French police evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the Paris landmark hours before the Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday.
The shirtless man was seen scaling the 330-metre (1,083-ft) tall tower in the afternoon. It is unclear where he began his ascent, but he was spotted just above the Olympic rings adorning the second section of the monument, just above the first viewing deck.
Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3pm. Some visitors who were briefly locked on the second floor were allowed to exit around 30 minutes later.
“An individual started climbing the Eiffel Tower at 2:45pm, police intervened and the person was detained,” a Paris police official told Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of a continuing investigation into the incident.
Videos posted on social media showed the bare-chested climber skirting the Olympic rings as he made his way up without ropes. In one, the grinning climber can be heard saying to bystanders “bloody warm, innit?” as he is escorted off the viewing platform by police.
The Eiffel Tower was a centrepiece of the opening ceremony, with Celine Dion serenading the city from one of its viewing areas. The Tower is not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was set to begin at Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis at 9pm.
The incident took place as the Olympic competition winds down and security services in Paris and beyond are shifting their focus to the closing ceremony that will bring the curtain down on the Games.
More than 30,000 police officers have been deployed around Paris on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said about 3,000 police officers will be mobilised around the Stade de France, and 20,000 police troops and other security staff in Paris and the Saint-Denis area will be mobilised late into Sunday night to ensure safety on the last day of the Olympics.
Additional reporting by Reuters
