An alarm was sounded in , after mass emails were sent with threats to place explosive devices in various parts of the French capital.
As reported by the French media, several buildings in the center of Paris were evacuated. The station and the Montparnasse tower, as well as the University’s Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences Po), have been evacuated, among others. Among the buildings reported by the messages was the Eiffel Tower, which was checked and deemed safe.
Also among the buildings mentioned in the threatening messages was the Bataclan concert venue, where a terrorist attack took place in 2015.
What do the investigations in Paris show?
French police have carried out verification searches of some of the buildings mentioned in the threatening messages, with no danger identified so far.
At the same time, preventive evacuations of places, such as Sciences Po Paris and the Montparnasse Tower, took place. As reported by Le Parisien “due to events beyond our control”, the Montparnasse Tower “remains temporarily closed to the public”, as stated on the website of the 15th arrondissement at the same time on Friday night.
As reported by French media, the search continued until 21:45 (local time) and it was clarified that the Montparnasse train station was not connected to the threat and did not have to be evacuated.
Threats and the previous period
Similar threats to plant explosive devices in central parts of the French capital had been made in the recent past.
In particular, at the end of last November, the headquarters of France Télévisions were evacuated and searched following a similar report. And then, a check was carried out, without finding any explosive device.
Also, two weeks later there was a corresponding bomb threat at the offices of the television network BFMTV.
