(Versailles) The Palace of Versailles was again being evacuated early Tuesday afternoon after a bomb threat and will remain closed all day, AFP learned from a source close to the matter and from the French public establishment.
“For security reasons, the Palace of Versailles is evacuating visitors and closing its doors today,” the establishment announced on its X account.
The castle had already been evacuated on Saturday afternoon after a bomb threat passed through an anonymous message published on the site moncommissariat.fr, while France lives in fear of attacks.
Tuesday’s alert was received on the same site and is “not taken lightly,” said the source close to the matter.
The evacuation of visitors was almost complete around 1:15 p.m. and “the deminers will work after the total evacuation” of the castle, said a police source.
“We hope to reopen as soon as possible,” said the establishment’s press service, which was unable to indicate the number of people evacuated.
At this time of the end of the high tourist season, between 10 and 15,000 visitors frequent the entire vast site where the castle of King Louis XIV is located, according to the press service.
After a knife attack which cost the life of a teacher in Arras on Friday, France was placed in an “attack emergency” situation, the highest level of the Vigipirate vigilance and protection system.
Bomb threats have increased since the start of the school year, with 168 alerts in schools since the beginning of September, according to Minister of National Education Gabriel Attal.