8 French airports forced to evacuate over security reasons

Paris. Oct 19: Eight airports in France were forced to evacuate over security reasons, according to media reports. The airports that were affected on Wednesday were the one in Beauvais near Paris, Strasbourg, Nantes, Biarritz, Toulouse, Lille, Lyon-Bron and Nice, reports CNN citing local media.

The Beauvais airport said it was evacuated “following an anonymous threat received by several French hubs". It later announced that it was in the process of reopening.

According to the French BFMTV, the Strasbourg and Nantes were evacuated due to a bomb threat.

Meanwhile, the airports in Biarritz, Toulouse, Lille iand Lyon-Bron were evacuated due to a bomb scare, but all four resumed operations after following police operations.

Nice airport resumed services on Wednesday evening after it was evacuating due to an unattended item earlier in the day, CNN reported.

Also on Wednesday, the Palace of Versailles near Paris was evacuated visitors for security reasons for the third time in less than a week.

The popular tourist destination reopened to visitors later in the day.

The venue was forced to evacuate on Tuesday due to a suspicious item, and over the weekend due to a bomb threat.

On October 14, the Louvre museum in Paris was closed for security reasons but reopened the following day.

Last week, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne placed the country under the highest security alert after an assailant fatally stabbed a teacher and injured three other people at a school in the northern city of Arras.

The attack on October 13 came nearly three years since the murder and beheading of another teacher, Samuel Paty, at his school outside Paris.

The perpetrator of that attack, 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, a Russian Muslim refugee, was shot dead by police.

France has been hit by a series of Islamist attacks in recent years.

The worst was in November 2015 when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked entertainment venues and cafes in Paris, killing 130 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.