Police save an Eiffel Tower climber

PARIS - A climber who sparked an evacuation of the Eiffel Tower on Monday was grabbed after clinging to the famous Paris landmark for more than six hours, officials said.

The man, who was not immediately identified, "is in the hands of the emergency teams" deployed to the tower, which will reopen to visitors as normal early on Tuesday, the company operating the structure said in a statement.

It said firemen, who had rappelled down from the tower's third-floor observation deck close to black-clad climber, managed to "talk the individual down".

The man "has been grabbed", a police official added.

Emergency procedures triggered by the man's unauthorized climb forced an evacuation of the iconic monument, the esplanade underneath and a large section of the adjacent Champ de Mars park on Monday afternoon.

The abrupt closure of one of France's biggest tourist draws frustrated visitors who had been planning to ascend the 324-meter tower.

"We're really disappointed, we're only here for a week and this messes with our whole program," said Sylvie and Celine Forcier from Quebec.

Justin and Karen Smith, from Los Angeles, had been hoping to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower after celebrating their wedding a day earlier in front of the monument. "We're disappointed," he said.

Police earlier said that, although they had made contact with the climber, they did not know his motive for climbing up its iron beams.

The tower is often the target of rogue free-solo climbers hoping to scale one of the world's most famous structures, often for bragging rights.

But police have also been called several times in recent years to thwart suicide attempts.

In October 2017, a young man ventured out on one of the beams and threatened to jump before police were able to convince him to come back.

In 2012, a British man managed to climb to the very top of the tower before plunging to his death.

Nearly 7 million people a year visit the tower, which last week celebrated its 130th anniversary.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 05/22/2019 page11)