Two Brazilian tourists were allegedly sexually assaulted, one of them possibly raped, while visiting 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 Paris’ Seventh Arrondissement (Arrondissement), 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 across the lawn of the Champ de Mars between the Eiffel Tower and the Paris military training grounds. One of the men forcibly grabbed the older sister’s buttocks, but she was able to escape from him.
He found his sister pinned to the ground by the second man, forcing the second suspect to flee, French channel 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 stating that the man raped the younger sister, according to the French newspaper Valeurs actuelles.
People relax in the Champ de Mars garden next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, but the district mayor insists that more needs to happen.
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Dati has urged city officials to provide increased security around France’s most popular tourist sites, some of which are within his district, including new fencing, more police patrols and CCTV security at the area.
Rachida Dati attends a rally at the Zenith Paris concert hall in Paris on February 13, 2022. (Andrea Savorani Neri/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Les Republicains, established by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the party Dati represents, has criticized “endemic security” and “rising crime” in Paris.
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A field police officer wrote in Le Figaro last September that he felt “nothing is being done to stop” the rise in crime and that “insufficient response does not discourage criminals from taking action”.
A Russian tourist walks past police officers on the bridge leading to the Eiffel Tower, on September 23, 2020, in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
The US State Department has issued a Level 2 alert to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to France, sparked by protests in the country and potential health risks associated with Chinese travelers following increased COVID-19 infection in the country after the end of “zero-COVID”. ” in December.
Paris authorities remain determined to clean up tourist sites ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, which will take place in the French capital, the Evening Standard reported.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said police will try to “saturate” the area around the Eiffel Tower to “fight crime and disperse rioters.”
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The stretch between Champs de Mars and the nearby metro station is a hotspot for pickpockets. Paris police arrested 19 people believed to be the ringleaders in December after a three-year operation with Paris police joined by Spanish and Italian authorities.
“We are going to continue and expand these actions in the run-up to the Olympic Games,” Núñez said.
