Louvre Museum and Versailles Palace reopen post security threats

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Image for illustrative purposes only. – FILE PIX

PARIS - France's two top tourist attractions - the Louvre Museum and the Palace of Versailles - have reopened after being forced to evacuate visitors and shut their doors due to security threats on Saturday, reported dpa news.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin gave the go-ahead in the evening after neither an explosive device was found nor an attack had taken place, he explained.

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Both institutions announced their reopening on Sunday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The Louvre had received a written threat on Saturday, according to a spokeswoman, and the radio station Europe 1 said the threat against the palace was received anonymously on a police website.

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The threats came at a time of unrest in the country: on Friday, a young man, allegedly a radicalised Islamist, killed a teacher with a knife and seriously injured three other people in a school in Arras in northern France.

Since then, France has been on the highest terror alert level. By Monday, 7,000 soldiers from the anti-terror unit Sentinelle are to be deployed nationwide.

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The attack took place almost three years to the day after the gruesome attack on history teacher Samuel Paty. The 47-year-old had been killed and then beheaded by a radical Islamist assailant in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020. - BERNAMA-dpa

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