Paris:
The Eiffel Tower was closed to the public today after clashes between fans and police at the Paris landmark during the Euro 2016 final, its operator said.
An Eiffel Tower management spokesman said the tower could “not be opened in the proper security conditions” after the clashes in which youths set alight rubbish bins, a car and a scooter before being dispersed by police with tear gas and water cannon.
Around 40 people were arrested over the unrest around the landmark, where fans gathered after they were refused entry to the nearby fan zone which was packed to its 90,000 capacity.
The base of the Eiffel Tower was engulfed in clouds of tear gas as riot police repelled the youths, who started fires on the pavement and threw bottles and other objects at the police lines.
Almost seven million people—around 20,000 a day— bought tickets to the Eiffel Tower in 2015, 80 percent of them coming from abroad to clamber up the skirts of the French capital’s “Iron Lady”.
The figures make the Eiffel Tower one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world as well as a symbol of the city—a far cry from its origins as a temporary structure built for the 1889 Universal Exhibition.
