The opening of the Eiffel Tower was delayed on Monday morning after security officials found two American tourists sleeping in the monument overnight, officials said.
“They were detected in the early morning by the Sete security service, during daily rounds of checks carried out before the monument was opened to the public,” according to the Eiffel Tower’s operator, Sociéte d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, also known as Sete. The operator said it would file a complaint about the two intruders, who posed no threat and were handed over to the police.
The Paris prosecutor’s office was informed on Monday morning that two American men had been found sleeping on the site of the Eiffel Tower after entering with tickets on Sunday night, according to a spokeswoman for the office, who said that alcohol was involved. She did not know where in the Eiffel Tower the men were discovered.
One of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, the Eiffel Tower was built from 1887 to 1889 to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution and stands at 1,083 feet. It receives about seven million visitors a year.
American tourists have been flocking to Europe this summer. The number of planned air arrivals to Paris for July and August has increased 14.4 percent this year, and is now nearly 5 percent above the level in 2019, before the pandemic.