Drunk tourists fall asleep on the Eiffel Tower after breaking in at night

The men reportedly hopped over security barriers after a visit on Sunday night

Two American tourists were found sleeping in the Eiffel Tower after they got stuck in the monument “because of how drunk they were”.

The men, who visited the Parisian landmark on Sunday night, were discovered by security guards “in the early hours” of Monday, the Eiffel Tower operator said.

The pair were discovered in a spot normally closed to the public, between the second and third levels of the tower, but “did not pose any apparent threat”, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete) added, in a statement on Tuesday.

A source in the police told news agency AFP the men bought entry tickets to the Eiffel Tower at around 10:40pm on Sunday night, and hopped over security barriers on their way down.

The police source also revealed firefighters and a specialist unit, trained to recover people from dangerous heights, were called to the 1,080-ft tower to help rescue the visitors.

The men were reportedly questioned at a police station in Paris’ seventh district, and Sete said it would file a criminal complaint against them.

Prosecutors said they “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were”.

The incident caused officials to delay the opening of the prominent tourist attraction, which draws millions of visitors each year, by an hour, according to media reports.

This comes days after the Eiffel Tower was evacuated due to a bomb threat, with staff escorting visitors out from all three levels as well as the square underneath.

Shortly after, police confirmed the threat was a hoax and advised the site could reopen to tourists on Saturday 12 August.

In 2019, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated after a man was caught trying to scale it.