“For security reasons the Palace of Versailles is evacuating visitors and closing today,” the establishment added on its official account on X (formerly known as Twitter). The former French royal residence was already evacuated on Saturday following an anonymous bomb threat.
Public television channel France 3 Champagne-Ardennes also closed its doors on Tuesday morning after receiving an email threatening an attack upon the station, based in Reims.
Staff were told to work from home and police were called to the building to protect employees already on the premises, said editor-in-chief Matthieu Mercier.
After a thorough investigation by the authorities, the station was permitted to reopen at midday.
“The email mentioned an attack on the glory of Allah, without anything to say whether it was real or not, but given the current context, we took it seriously,” said Delphine Lenormand, communications manager for France 3.
The Somme prefecture also evacuated a college and a school in Doullens in the Somme after a bomb threat, according to a statement posted on X.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that “all European states are vulnerable” in the face of “Islamist terrorism”, after two Swedish nationals were shot dead in Brussels on Monday. Several days ago, a teacher was murdered in a stabbing in Arras, northeastern France.
