PARIS: French police have evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the Paris landmark hours before the Olympics closing ceremony Sunday.
The shirtless man was seen scaling the 330-meter (1,083-foot) tall tower in the afternoon. It’s unclear where he began his ascent, but he was spotted just above the Olympic rings adorning the second section of the monument, just above the first viewing deck.
Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m. Some visitors who were briefly locked on the second floor were allowed to exit around 30 minutes later.
The Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony, with Celine Dion serenading the city from one of its viewing areas. The Tower is not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was set to begin at Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis at 9 p.m.
The incident occurred as the Olympic competition winds down and security services in Paris and beyond are shifting their focus to the closing ceremony that will bring the curtain down on the Games.
More than 30,000 police officers have been deployed around Paris on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said about 3,000 police officers will be mobilized around the Stade de France, and 20,000 police troops and other security personnel in Paris and the Saint-Denis area will be mobilized late into Sunday night to ensure safety on the last day of the Olympics.
A man is seen climbing the Eiffel Tower, prompting an evacuation hours before closing ceremony
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A man is seen climbing the Eiffel Tower, prompting an evacuation hours before closing ceremony
- Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony
- Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m local time
Pope Leo to visit Italy’s Lampedusa island in July
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV in July will visit the Italian island of Lampedusa, a landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, the Vatican announced om Thursday.
The US pontiff has previously thanked the people of Lampedusa, which is just 145km off the coast of Tunisia, for the welcome they have given over the years to those who arrived, often on leaky, overcrowded boats.
Leo has also repeatedly spoken out against measures to clamp down on illegal migration.
He called the US administration’s treatment of immigrants “inhuman.”
Leo will visit Lampedusa on July 4, as part of a program of visits within Italy this summer, which includes a trip to Pompeii on May 8, the anniversary of his election, the Vatican said.
On May 23, he will meet pilgrims in the so-called “Land of Fires” in Campania, a southern Italian region blighted by toxic waste dumped by the mafia.
Leo’s predecessor, Francis, chose Lampedusa for his first official visit after becoming pontiff in July 2013.
In a definitive speech of his papacy, Francis denounced what he called “the globalization of indifference,” and the defense of migrants became a cornerstone of his papacy.
Leo became the first US head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics last May following Francis’s death.
In October, Leo said states had a right to protect their borders but a “moral obligation” to provide refuge.
“With the abuse of vulnerable migrants, we are witnessing, not the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather grave crimes committed or tolerated by the state,” he said, according to a speech published by the Vatican.
“Ever more inhuman measures are being adopted — even celebrated politically —that treat these ‘undesirables’ as if they were garbage and not human beings.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has taken a tough line on irregular migration, restricting the activities of charity rescue boats and seeking to speed up returns of people who fail to qualify for asylum.
Her ministers last week agreed on a new draft law that would allow the imposition of a “naval blockade” to stop migrant boats from entering Italian waters.
Almost 2,300 migrants have landed on Italy’s shores so far this year, compared to 5,600 in the same period in 2025 and 4,200 in the same period in 2024.
Yet many die trying to make the crossing, with at least 547 lives lost along Mediterranean routes so far this year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Leo, who was born in Chicago and spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, has said he loves to travel.
He spent many years on the road when he served two, six-year terms as the superior of his Augustinian religious order, which required him to visit Augustinian communities around the world.
Pope Leo himself has said he hopes to visit his beloved Peru, as well as Argentina and Uruguay, trips that could happen toward the end of the year.
