Eiffel Tower climber ‘admitted to psychiatric unit’

A man (C) climbs up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, without any protection, on May 20, 2019. – The Eiffel Tower was evacuated on May 20, 2019 in the afternoon after a person was spotted climbing up the Paris landmark, the company that operates the structure said. “A climber has been spotted. It’s the standard procedure: We have to stop the person, and in that case we evacuate the tower,” an official told AFP, adding that police were on the scene. (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP)

PARIS, France (AFP) — A man, believed to be Russian, who sparked a mass evacuation of the Eiffel Tower by scaling the iconic Paris landmark has been admitted to a psychiatric unit, legal sources said Tuesday.

The man caused chaos Monday and the closure of the monument to tourists by spending six hours clinging to the outer metal framework of the Eiffel Tower.

His identity has not been disclosed. He was questioned by police on Tuesday and has now been admitted to the psychiatric hospital of the police, legal sources told AFP.

An investigation has been opened for unauthorized entry into a cultural monument, a judicial source said.

“It is a Russian man who has suicidal tendencies,” said a source close to the case, asking not to be named.

Firemen who had rappelled down from the tower’s third-floor observation deck to near the black-clad climber managed to persuade him to come down.

Some 2,500 people who had come to visit the Eiffel Tower had to be evacuated Monday but it reopened as normal on Tuesday.

© Agence France-Presse