Eiffel Tower (Photo by Lauren Bowman)
Paris police have arrested a man who used a parachute to jump off the city’s emblematic Eiffel Tower early on Thursday morning. Citing local police sources, CNN reported that he arrived at around 5:00 a.m. and climbed one of the world-famous landmark’s four pillars in order to parachute off the top of the tower.
SETE (Société d’Exploitation de la tour Eiffel), the company that manages and operates the iconic monument, told reporters that security personnel detected the perpetrator—whose name has not been released—in “less than a minute” upon his having entered the site.
The historic structure’s intervention brigade attempted to deter the delinquent, but were unable to intercept him before he reached the top, and he was able to leap off of the 984-foot attraction, landing on the roof of a nearby sports center building before the police took him into custody.
The Local reported that the landmark latticework edifice was not damaged in any way and the man was uninjured after his unauthorized base-jumping stunt. The tower’s opening to visitors was slightly delayed Thursday morning, due to the incident.
SETE has lodged a complaint against the offender in which it condemned, “this type of irresponsible action, which endangers those working on or under the structure." Reportedly, criminal charges are being brought against the unnamed miscreant for trespassing and "endangering the lives of others".
This is just the latest in a string of recent security breaches that have taken place at the French capital’s top tourist attraction. While making their pre-opening rounds on Monday morning, security staff discovered a pair of drunken American tourists, who had spent the previous night in the tower.
The two men, who were found still asleep in an off-limits area between the second and third levels, were “quickly removed” and handed over to Paris police, SETE told CNN. The Paris prosecutor’s office said that the pair, who had Sunday evening tickets for the attraction, had gotten, “allegedly trapped there due to their excessive alcohol consumption.”
Just days before that, three floors of the tower and its courtyard had to be evacuated for several hours on Saturday while authorities assessed two false bomb threats that had been posted online.
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