The areas close to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower in Paris were closed and reopened this Tuesday after bomb alert. The Arc de Triomphe area and the near metro stations were evacuated as well, after a bomb alert, but then by 16:30 GMT the traffic was already back to normal.


The Champs de Mars park around the Eiffel Tower had also been briefly evacuated after the discovery of a bag full of ammunition. Two local news sites showed images of a blue bag with different types of ammunition.

France is on high alert following the beheading of a teacher this month by an 18-year-old Muslim outraged by the use of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a civics class. There have been numerous fake bomb alerts. The most recent one was at Lyon train station a few days ago and at the Eiffel Tower one month ago.

French police reopen Arc de Triomphe after false bomb alarm
The French police today canceled the alert on the Arc de Triomphe and the esplanade of the Champs de Mars in Paris, which were evacuated on Tuesday by the forces after a bomb threat that was false.

The Paris Police Prefecture indicated that the telephone call with the bomb alert in the Arc de Triomphe area took place around 3:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. GMT).

The alarm was withdrawn in the middle of the afternoon, when the security perimeter was ended after confirming that it was a false alert. Traffic resumed shortly before 6:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. GMT).

The Police imposed a security perimeter around this monument, while a team of bomb squad checked if there is any danger. Regarding the esplanade of the Champs de Mars, where the Eiffel Tower is located, the agents discovered a package with "various munitions", which the prefecture sources did not want to specify.

In that area, people were also evacuated until the bomb squad finally ruled out the danger, but the activity in the Eiffel Tower was not affected, as confirmed by the company that manages that monument.Large-scale counterterrorism operations in France after the crime of Professor Samuel Paty

Fifteen people have been arrested since last Friday in connection with the murder of Professor Samuel Paty outside of Paris. Among the new detainees, four of Paty's students stand out, as well as a fifth who has already been released. According to the newspaper Le Monde, one or more students pointed out the identity of the teacher to the terrorist in exchange for several hundred euros.

Another person already linked to terrorist movements who voluntarily presented himself to the investigators for having been in contact with the aggressor some time before the events.

In addition, ten people remain detained since Friday, mainly relatives of the murderer, such as his parents, grandfather and a little brother, arrested in the town of Évreux, about 80 kilometers from where the attack took place outside Paris.

Also the father of a student from Paty who had started a campaign against the teacher on social networks after showing cartoons of Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression and a radical Islamist militant, Abdelhakim Sefraoui. President Emmanuel Macron met with Paty's family on Monday, to whom a national tribute will be dedicated on Wednesday.

According to a source close to the case, these are people booked by the intelligence services for their radical preaching and their hateful messages on social networks. We must not give the enemies of the Republic “not a minute of respite”, said Minister Darmanin, on Europe 1 radio.

Paty's murder shocked France. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the country on Sunday in defense of freedom of expression and against religious obscurantism.

After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with five ministers, including the Prime Minister, and also with the anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Richard, President Macron announced an “action plan” against “the structures, associations or people close to the radicalized circles” that spread appeals to hatred.

According to the Interior Minister, 51 associations will receive visits from State services throughout the week and several of them will be dissolved. In particular, the minister wants to dissolve the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), in addition to the humanitarian association Baraka City, founded by Muslims of the Salafist style.

Paty's murder was committed by a Moscow-born 18-year-old Chechen boy, Abdullakh Anzorov, who was killed by nine police shots shortly after. The Interior Minister accused the father of a student and the radical Islamist militant Abdelhakim

Sefrioui of having “clearly launched a fatwa” (religious decree) against Paty for showing cartoons of Muhammad in class.
The leader of the far-right National Regrouping, Marine Le Pen, asked the government to promote “wartime legislation” and to deport all foreigners detained for terrorism or who are part of the lists of radicalized people.
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