Eiffel Tower crime wave: Tourists ‘sexually assaulted’ near French landmark amid security concerns

Two Brazilian tourists were allegedly sexually assaulted, with one possibly raped, while they visited the Eiffel Tower on Sunday.

“The rape of a woman at the foot of the Eiffel Tower once again highlights the dangerousness of the Champ de Mars site,” said Rachida Dati, mayor of the Seventh Arrondissement (District) of Paris, where the Eiffel Tower is located.

The victims, who are sisters, met two young men hours before the assault and visited the famous site, walking along the Champ de Mars lawn between the Eiffel Tower and Paris military training grounds. One of the men forcibly grabbed the older sister’s buttocks, but she was able to escape from him.

She found her sister pinned to the ground by the second man, forcing the second suspect to flee, French outlet BFM TV reported. The sisters were taken to a local police station, and the men remain at large.

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The women filed a report with the police that indicates the man did rape the younger sister, according to French paper Valeurs actuelles.

People relax at the Champ de Mars garden next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, July 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Michel Euler)

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, but the district mayor insists more needs to happen.

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Dati has urged city officials to provide greater security around France’s popular tourist sites, some of which fall within her district, including new fences, increased police patrols and CCTV security in the area.

Rachida Dati attends a rally in the Zenith Paris concert hall in Paris on Feb 13, 2022. (Andrea Savorani Neri / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Les Republicains, established by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the party that Dati represents, has criticized the “endemic security” and “rise in delinquency” in Paris.

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A field police officer wrote in Le Figaro last September that he felt “nothing is done to stem” the rise in crime, and that the “insufficient response does not discourage criminals from acting.”

A Russian tourist walks past police officers at the bridge leading to the Eiffel Tower, Sept. 23, 2020, in Paris. (AP Photo / Michel Euler)

The U.S. State Department has issued a Level 2 alert to “exercise increased caution” traveling to France, prompted by demonstrations in the country and possible health risks related to Chinese travelers following the country’s COVID-19 infection spike following the end of “zero-COVID” in December.

Paris authorities remain keen to clean up the tourist sites ahead of the Olympic Games in 2024, which will take place in the French capital, the Evening Standard reported. 

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez said the police would try to “saturate” the area around the Eiffel Tower in order to “fight against crime and to disperse the troublemakers.”

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The stretch between Champs de Mars and the nearby metro train station is a reported hotspot for pickpockets. Paris police in December arrested 19 people believed to be the ringleaders after a three-year operation with the Paris police joined by Spanish and Italian authorities.

“We are going to continue and to amplify these actions in the run-up to the Olympics,” Nunez said.