8 French airports, Palace of Versailles evacuated for bomb scares

The Palace of Versailles and eight different airports across France were all evacuated Wednesday amid a series of bomb scares.

None of the reported bomb threats proved to be legitimate, and all nine large public places were eventually reopened.

Threats were emailed to airports in Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Strasbourg, French newspaper Le Monde reported. Beauvais Airport, about 40 miles north of Paris, was also threatened and evacuated. Additionally, Biarritz Airport was evacuated over fears of a bomb.

The Palace of Versailles, the popular tourist destination which sits 10 miles west of downtown Paris, was also evacuated Wednesday. It was the third time in five days that visitors were cleared out of Versailles, following evacuations on Saturday and Tuesday.

French security forces have been on high alert for over a week now, as police were dispatched to Jewish community centers nationwide following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Then on Oct. 13, a teacher was stabbed to death at a high school in the northern city of Arras. Police said it appeared to be an Islamic extremist attack. On Monday, the school was evacuated ahead of a planned moment of silence across France to honor the victim.

That attack prompted France to heighten security even further and add 7,000 troops to the streets.

“The choice has been made not to give in to terror,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday, after Versailles and the Louvre Museum were both evacuated. “We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance.”

With News Wire Services