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Eiffel Tower climber grabbed after sparking evacuation

A climber who sparked an evacuation of the Eiffel Tower on Monday was grabbed after clinging to the famous Paris landmark for more than six hours, officials said. The man, who was not immediately identified, “is in the hands of the emergency teams” deployed to the tower, which will reopen to visitors as normal early on Tuesday, the company operating the structure said in a statement.

It said firemen who had rappelled down from the tower’s third-floor observation deck to near the black-clad climber managed to “talk the individual down”.

The man “has been grabbed,” a police official added. Emergency procedures triggered by the man’s unauthorised climb forced an evacuation of the iconic monument, the esplanade underneath it and a large section of the adjacent Champ de Mars park mid-afternoon Monday. Police earlier said they did not know his motive for climbing up its iron beams.