The Eiffel Tower was evacuated this morning after a fire started in the lift. Firefighters were ‘unable to access the flames’ inside the lift shaft between the ground and first floors, Frontières reported at 10.35am. A police source told Boulevard Voltaire just after midday local time that the fire had been extinguished.
![[French police and firefighters stand at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, where a fire was reported in Paris, on December 24, 2024. (Photo by Anna KURTH / AFP) (Photo by ANNA KURTH/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234176516-0546.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Some 1,200 people were evacuated. The cause of the fire was a cable overheating, an insider claimed. One witness said on X: ‘We were asked to evacuate immediately.’. Another added: ‘For security reasons, the Eiffel Tower is closed.’. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.
![[Visitors queue at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower as the site was closed and then reopened after a fire was reported in Paris, on December 24, 2024. (Photo by Anna KURTH / AFP) (Photo by ANNA KURTH/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234177025-658d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Up Next. The Eiffel Tower in Champ de Mars sees up to 25,000 visitors a day. The reported fire happened only hours after a separate blaze erupted at 1 rue de la Pépinière, opposite the Cour de Rome, nearly two miles northeast of the Eiffel Tower. Footage showed the flames eating away at the seventh floor of the residential and office building at around 9am.
![[Firefighters work after a fire broke out on the top floor of a residential and office building near the busy St. Lazare train station in northwest Paris, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234173536-ae64.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Fire officials said the blaze near the busy St Lazare train station was caused by an accident at a construction site. ‘It smells like something is burning everywhere in the neighbourhood, and on people’s clothes,’ one witness told LeParisien. Notre-Dame, meanwhile, reopened to the public earlier this month some five years after flames devoured the church’s centuries-old lead roof.
![[Firefighters work after a fire broke out on the top floor of a residential and office building near the busy St. Lazare train station in northwest Paris, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234173618-bac0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
