Suspicious bag causes security alert at Louvre in Paris
Posted May 7, 2017 07:40:29 AM.
Last Updated May 7, 2017 09:32:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
French officials say there was an evacuation in Paris.
The courtyard outside the Louvre museum in Paris has reopened after a brief security scare prompted an evacuation of the site where French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron plans to celebrate election night.
Explosives experts have left the site after a suspicious bag prompted the evacuation on Sunday of a few hundred people, primarily journalists preparing for Macron event. The museum itself was not evacuated or closed, and visitors continued entering and leaving.
The Louvre already was being heavily guarded after an extremist attacker targeted soldiers near the museum during the presidential campaign.
The Paris police prefecture Tweeted a reassuring message: “#Louvre These are simple verification measures carried out as precautionary measure.”
The runoff election in which Macron is competing against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is being conducted under the watch of 50,000 security forces guarding against extremist attacks.
Macron picked the dignified internal courtyard of the renowned palace-turned-museum as the location for his celebration party.
