Palace of Versailles evacuates again: Former royal residence is emptied after a bomb threat for the SIXTH time in a week, angering tourists and local officials

• There were 5,000 people inside the palace at the time of today’s evacuation

The Palace of Versailles has been evacuated after a bomb threat for the sixth time in just a week, angering tourists and local officials.  

‘For security reasons, the Palace of Versailles is evacuating visitors and will reopen as soon as the checks have been completed. Thank you for your understanding,’ the former royal residence outside Paris said today in a now all-too-familiar message.

Today’s evacuation after a bomb threat which turned out to be false was the sixth such one in a week.

The situation is now starting to agitate not just tourists but also local officials and tourism sector players, who see the risk of a key income source dwindling.

‘I’m from California. It’s the one thing I wanted to do in Paris. It’s frustrating,’ said Juliette Harris, who was visiting with her husband and two children, and had to leave the palace following the evacuation order.

The former royal residence outside Paris said today in a now all-too-familiar message that visitors would have to evacuate

Disgruntled tourists were asked to evacuated the palace today 

This is the sixth time the palace has been evacuated, much to the dismay of tourist as well as local officials and tourism sector players, who see the risk of a key income source dwindling (pictured: tourists leaving the palace during a previous evacuation)

Preferring not to stay in Versailles, which is half an hour’s train ride west of Paris, her family then headed to the Louvre museum in the centre, in the hope that it would not be shut down too.

After being banished from the palace due to the security alert, tourists had to content themselves with selfies in the rain with the statue of the sun king Louis XIV in the vast outer courtyard.

There were some 5,000 people inside the palace at the time of Saturday’s evacuation, said a police source. The palace reopened later in the day following checks.

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Most of the false bomb threats, which are posted on French police website moncommissariat.fr are hard to track down.

‘I was worried that there would be an alert, but thought it might come in the afternoon,’ said Camille Froment from the Tarn region of southern France who is visiting for two weeks with her son.

‘I am leaving on Monday and it will be tough’ to reschedule with a visit to Versailles, she added.

Even at this time of year, up to 15,000 people can visit the palace every day, a spokeswoman said, adding that ‘for now, we have not observed any trend of cancellations by visitors.’

Each cancelled visit can be refunded.

But the mayor of Versailles, Francois de Mazieres (LR), on Friday told Franceinfo radio that visitors ‘are hesitant to come now’, and that if the alerts continue to multiply, ‘it could have consequences on attendance’.

In the city, businesses are already seeing sales decline.

‘The turnover is starting to fall,’ said Ahmed Imran, manager of a souvenir store a few hundred metres from the palace, where staff have already been reduced in recent days.

Senegalese or Guinean street vendors selling trinkets to tourists have also lost out on sales due to the many evacuations.

While trinket selling is illegal, vendors are usually left alone by police. ‘We don’t bother anyone, we don’t harass tourists and our presence deters gangs of thieves,’ one of them told French newspaper Le Parisien.  

Street vendors selling trinkets (two pictured here) to tourists have also lost out on sales due to the many evacuations

There were some 5,000 people inside the palace at the time of Saturday’s evacuation, said a police source. The palace reopened later in the day following checks (pictured: police standing guard outside the palace this week)

Tourists were seen streaming out onto the Paris streets following an evacuation earlier this week

He also said that during evacuations, he and other sellers would have to follow tourists emptying out of the palace – loosing him valuable time in which he could make money. 

Shortly after the alert, restaurant tables were full of disappointed tourists, who had come to take refuge while waiting for the reopening.

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‘Afterwards, it dries up, and quickly’ once the alert has passed. ‘In the longer term we see fewer and fewer tourists,’ said Enzo Aracil, a waiter in a cafe.

M’Baye, a Senegalese beret seller, said: ‘For a week, I haven’t even earned a single euro. On top of that, we see a lot fewer tourists, I have the impression that attendance has seriously dropped. 

‘So we are forced to take a little from our savings. It’s hard, especially with winter coming.’

Another seller, Alassane, also noticed the number of tourists dropping in the last two weeks since the start of the war in the Middle East, with bomb threats making the situation for sellers even worse. 

He said if it’s crowded, people buy less and don’t like stay in front of busy sights since the war. 

‘With these alerts, I’m afraid they will end up not coming anymore,’ he added. 

The frustration is also beginning to be felt in the police, who must deploy considerable resources at each alert to secure the area.

‘It takes time, and during that time colleagues are not doing their daily tasks,’ said Tony Vallee, of the Yvelines region police.

At least 11 airports nationwide carried out evacuations on Thursday after receiving threats. Ten were evacuated Friday, among 18 targeted by bomb threats.

Police patrol outside an airport as several of France’s airports were evacuated this week

Only one airport on Saturday – Tours in the Loire region – was evacuated. The two main airports in Paris have so far not been affected on any day.

‘I want to say it very clearly, the smart guys or the little jokers who play these games are in fact big fools, even serious offenders,’ Transport Minister Clement Beaune said yesterday.

France upped its attack alert level in the wake of a fatal stabbing of a schoolteacher earlier this month by a man who claimed the act in the name of the Islamic State extremist group.

The attack in the northern city of Arras also came amid heightened concern over security after the attack by Palestinian terror group Hamas against Israel which has been followed by retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Against this background, France has been plagued by false bomb threats over the last few days not just against the Palace of Versailles but also the Louvre museum and a host of regional airports just as autumn holidays are under way.

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