Tourists and Parisians sit in the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on August 9, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: AFP
A man was arrested in Paris on Thursday after jumping off the Eiffel Tower with a parachute, police and the monument’s operator said.
The man, an experienced climber, entered the tower’s perimeter shortly after 5.00 am (0300 GMT), well before its official opening.
He was quickly detected by guards, according to the site’s operator Sete, but still managed to get to the top before anybody could stop him, carrying the parachute in a backpack.
Once he got near the top of the 330-metre-high structure, he jumped.
The man landed in a nearby stadium where he was arrested for endangering the lives of others, police said.
“This kind of irresponsible action puts people working at or below the tower in danger,” Sete said in a statement.
The Eiffel Tower is the French capital’s top tourist spot, attracting 5.9 million visitors in 2022.
The tower’s opening, usually at 9.00 a.m., was slightly delayed due to the incident, Sete said, adding that it had filed criminal charges against the man.
Last week, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated twice on the same day following hoax bomb alerts.
And on Monday, two inebriated American tourists were found sleeping off a heavy night in the heights of the tower, having dodged security the night before.