The world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris has been evacuated and shut down for the rest of the day after reportedly receiving a bomb threat amid increasing tensions over the Israel-Palestine conflict and a suspected Islamist attack in France on Friday.
UPDATE 1600: Following the evacuation and closure of the Louvre Museum in Paris on Saturday, the Palace of Versailles — the former residence of the French Royal Family — was also evacuated after reportedly receiving a bomb threat of its own, Le Parisien reports. The Palace said it will remain closed for the rest of the day.
The original story continues as follows:
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), the Louvre Museum in Paris wrote on Saturday: “Dear visitors, For security reasons, the Musée du Louvre is closing its doors today, Saturday, October 14. Those who have booked a visit during the day will be reimbursed. Thank you for your understanding.”
The decision to shut down the world’s largest museum came as around 3,000 people were inside the building, forcing an evacuation.
According to the Le Parisien newspaper, citing a Paris police source, the evacuation and decision to shut down the museum was prompted by a written message threatening to bomb the Louvre.
The reported bomb threat to the museum came one day after a French teacher, Dominique Bernard, was stabbed to death in a suspected Islamist terror attack outside a middle school in the city of Arras.
The alleged attacker, identified as Mohamed Mogouchkov, alongside his family was reportedly subject to a deportation order in 2014. However, pro-migrant groups successfully blocked their removal, allowing him to remain in the country.
Mogouchkov was also reportedly on France’s extremism watch list, having what is known in the country as an “S file” for “radical Islamism”. During the attack, Mogouchkov is reported to have shouted the Islamic war cry “Allah hu Akbar” as he allegedly stabbed the teacher to death.
The suspected Islamist assassination came on the same day that the Palestinian terror group Hamas called for a global “Day of Jihad” and an “Al-Aqsa Flood”, referring to the series of terror attacks that killed at least 1,300 people in Israel after Hamas launched an invasion last Saturday.
Following the suspected terror attack, France raised its “emergency attack” alert to its highest threat level on Friday evening. The government announced the mobilisation of up to 7,000 soldiers to bolster security measures throughout the country.
