Eiffel Tower evacuated: The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday evening for a few hours as police investigated a bomb threat. Anti-terrorism forces are on the alert in case France’s intervention against terrorist groups in Mali sparks retaliatory attacks.

French police officers and soldiers stand guard near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on March 30, 2013. The Eiffel Tower was evacuated in the evening on March 30 after an anonymous caller announced an attack. (Thomas Coex/AFP)

Approximately 1,400 visitors were evacuated from the Eiffel Tower on Saturday as police brought in sniffer dogs to investigate a bomb threat phoned in from the suburbs of Paris, reports AFP.
Tourists were readmitted after about two or three hours when the threat proved false.

The French-led military intervention to take back Northern Mali from Muslim extremest groups has French anti-terrorism units on alert should those groups make retaliatory attacks.
In March 2011, police evacuated the Eiffel Tower following a bomb threat that also proved false. It was the fourth time the site had been evacuated.
At the time, France had received threats from extremist groups over troops in Afghanistan as well as a recently-passed law banning Muslims from wearing face veils in public.