Paris anti-terror upgrade: Eiffel Tower to get bulletproof glass protection

Paris anti-terror upgrade: Eiffel Tower to get bulletproof glass protection

Works began today to boost security at the Eiffel Tower as an anti-terrorism measure, city hall said, with bulletproof glass walls set to go up around the world's most visited monument.

The changes come after a string of jihadist attacks in the French capital over the past two years in which more than 200 people have died.

A bulletproof glass wall will be installed around the monument's gardens under the 30-million-euro ($36-million), nine-month works, the city's tourism chief, JeanFrancois Martins, told AFP. Visited by six to seven million people each year, the landmark already has a permanent police patrol.

But Paris councillors voted unanimously in March to boost its security due to the

"particularly high terrorist threat".

Last month a 19-year-old former psychiatric patient leapt over a security barrier at the tower wielding a knife, saying he wanted to attack a soldier.

Some 7,000 troops have been deployed under an anti- terrorism operation known as Sentinelle, patrolling streets and guarding tourist hotspots, since the jihadist attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015.