Drunk US tourists got stuck, fell asleep in Eiffel Tower, rescued next morning

The tourists were brought in by the police for questioning. (File photo)

Two American tourists were found sleeping off a heavy night at the heights of Paris' Eiffel Tower on Monday, after dodging security the night before, the monument's operator said Tuesday.

Security guards roused the men "in the early morning" as they were making their rounds before the French landmark's 9:00 am opening time, publicly-owned Eiffel Tower operator Sete said.

They "appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were," Paris prosecutors told news agency AFP.

The inebriated Americans had spent their illicit night under the stars in a spot normally closed to the public between the tower's second and third levels, but "did not pose any apparent threat," said Sete.

After paying for an entry ticket around 10:40 pm on Sunday, the pair hopped security barriers while climbing down the stairs from the tower's top, a police source said.

Firefighters, including a specialist unit for recovering people from dangerous heights, were sent to recover the interlopers, the police source added.

Both men were brought to the police station in Paris' seventh district for questioning, while Sete said it would file a criminal complaint.

The discovery of the nocturnal infiltrators delayed the tower's opening to the public on Monday morning for around an hour.

Meanwhile, the French police have launched an investigation into two bomb scares at the Eiffel Tower, this weekend that forced the monument to be evacuated twice in the same day, prosecutors said on Monday. The landmark tower became the target of false bomb threats on two occasions on Saturday and was cleared of visitors each time.

Paris detectives are leading the probe into suspected "threats to lives" and "falsely claiming that a dangerous explosive incident has occurred or will occur", the prosecutors' office said.

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(With inputs from AFP)