Paris, October 19: Reports from local media indicate that eight airports in France were compelled to evacuate due to security concerns. The affected airports on Wednesday included Beauvais near Paris, Strasbourg, Nantes, Biarritz, Toulouse, Lille, Lyon-Bron, and Nice, as reported by CNN.
Beauvais airport initiated the evacuation due to an “anonymous threat received by several French hubs” but later confirmed it was in the process of reopening.
Strasbourg and Nantes airports were evacuated following a bomb threat, according to French BFMTV.
Meanwhile, airports in Biarritz, Toulouse, Lille, and Lyon-Bron were evacuated due to bomb scares but subsequently resumed operations after police assessments.
Nice airport, which had been evacuated earlier in the day due to an unattended item, resumed services on Wednesday evening, as reported by CNN.
On the same day, the Palace of Versailles near Paris was evacuated for the third time in less than a week due to security concerns. However, it later reopened to visitors.
Recent incidents have raised security concerns in France, with the Louvre museum in Paris closing temporarily on October 14 for security reasons but reopening the following day.
Last week, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne raised the country’s security alert to its highest level after an assailant fatally stabbed a teacher and injured three others at a school in the northern city of Arras on October 13.
This incident came nearly three years after 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 experienced a series of Islamist attacks in recent years, with the worst occurring in November 2015 when gunmen and suicide bombers targeted entertainment venues and cafes in Paris, resulting in 130 casualties. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
