Eiffel Tower Abandoned from Bomb Threat

Was this a response to the Muslim veil ban?

Eiffel Tower evacuated in bomb scare Herald Sun (hat tip Armaros)

FRENCH police evacuated the Eiffel Tower and the park surrounding the Paris landmark today after a bomb alert.

A police officer said about 25,000 people were in the area at the time of the scare but added that they left calmly shortly before 9pm local time.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alert was sounded either after a threat was phoned in or following the discovery of a suspicious package.

The people evacuated, mostly French and foreign tourists, were asked to stay on the nearby Seine river banks, and the tower area and Champ de Mars park were also declared off limits.

The scare happened just hours after the French parliament passed a law prohibiting wearing a full-face veil in public, meaning a ban will come into force early next year if it is not overturned by senior judges.

The bill makes no mention of Islam, but President Nicolas Sarkozy's government promoted it as a means to protect women from being forced to wear Muslim full-face veils such as the burqa or the niqab.

There has not been any suggestion so far that the two events are linked, however.