Pick-pocketing shuts down Eiffel Tower
Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists yesterday as staff walked off the job to protest 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 weekend recalls a similar strike at the Louvre museum in 2013 as staff protested often violent pickpockets stalking the halls of the palace.
Workers at the 126-year-old iron lattice towersaid in a statement they had chosen to down tools due to an "increase in pickpockets around the Eiffel Tower and several threats and assaults." Paris, which received 22 million visitors in 2014 according to city figures, is one of the world's top tourist destinations and a mecca for tricksters and pickpockets.
Comments