News Digest

Eiffel Tower closed as staff strike in protest at pickpocket gangs

Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists on Friday as staff walked off to protest against a surge in gangs of pickpockets roaming around the monument. The closure of one of the busiest tourist attractions in the French capital ahead of a long holiday weekend recalls a similar strike at the Louvre museum in 2013 as staff protested against the often violent pickpockets stalking the halls of the palace. Workers at the 126-year-old iron lattice tower said in a statement they had chosen to down tools due to an “increase in pickpockets around the Eiffel Tower and several threats and assaults.”

The pickpockets form a gang of 4/5 people. Sometimes there can be around 30.

Eiffel Tower staff statement

The statement from the workers said they want “formal guarantees from management that lasting and effective measures will be taken to end this scourge to which numerous tourists fall victim every day." The closure of the monument, which attracts some seven million tourists a year, left hundreds of visitors disappointed. The company charged with overseeing the management of the monument said in a statement it "regrets that visitors already present are being punished." It said management was working with police to take measures "guaranteeing the security of staff and public.”