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Witnesses report Paris' Eiffel Tower has been evacuated; cause not immediately known

Police evacuated the Eiffel Tower and the park surrounding the Paris landmark on Tuesday after a bomb alert, an AFP journalist said. A police officer said about 25,000 people were in the area at the time of the alert but added that they left calmly shortly before 9:00 pm (1900 GMT). The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alert was sounded either after a threat was phoned in or following the discovery of a suspicious package. The people evacuated, mostly French and foreign tourists, were asked to stay on the nearby Seine river banks, and the tower area...

EIFFEL LIGHTNING BOLT: Believe it or not, bolts of lightning are shooting out of the Eiffel Tower. Photographer Hakim Atek caught it happening on May 25th: Photo Details: Nikon D80 + Nikkor 18-135mm, ISO 100, f/8, 30s, +2.0ev "I saw some lightning out the window of my home in Paris," says Atek. "So I set up a tripod and pointed my camera (a Nikon D80) at the Eiffel Tower. I never expected to get such an amazing picture." But did the Tower really make its own lightning? The surprising answer is "yes." "The upward branching in this photo shows that...

.."the processes can be divided into two categories, one material aimed at the most popular sites and most important economically, (Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, etc.) and the second directed against important figures [of] Paris, led by the mayor of Paris."

The stairs were climbed by Gustave Eiffel to inaugurate the tower A part of the Eiffel Tower's iron spiral staircase is set to go under the hammer at an auction in Paris.The 4.5m (14.7ft), 20-step section, which once linked the tower's second and third levels, is expected to fetch up to 30,000 euros ($44,000; £21,000). It was one of 24 sections removed in 1983 to make room for new lifts. The 324m tower, built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, is the world's most popular monument, drawing six million visitors a year. It was the tallest building...

PARIS, France (AP) -- A Norwegian man was killed after jumping from the Eiffel Tower when a parachute he was wearing got stuck on an upper deck of the monument, officials said Tuesday. Preliminary investigations indicated that the man planned to film his jump as part of publicity for a Norwegian clothing brand, police said. The man, 31, entered the tower on Monday evening with a hidden parachute and a helmet that had a small video camera attached to it, said the official at Paris' police headquarters. Upon reaching the Eiffel Tower's 115-meter-high (380-foot-high) second deck, the man jumped. Investigators...

Local news just flashed that an Egypt Airliner has crashed in Egypt... Reporting majority of ~135 passengers are French tourists....

<p>PARIS, France -- The top of the Eiffel Tower was on fire Tuesday night and smoke could be seen billowing from the Paris monument.</p> <p>The fire broke out in a so-called technical room housing antenna equipment at the top of the tower, Paris police said. Smoke was curling from the third floor of the top level of the famous tower.</p>