3 French airports, Palace of Versailles evacuated in latest security alerts

PARIS (AP) — The Palace of Versailles and three airports in cities across France were evacuated for security reasons and temporarily closed Wednesday, the latest in a spate of evacuations in the past five days around France.

The former royal chateau of Versailles apologized to visitors for forcing them to evacuate from the sumptuous 17th-century palace “for security reasons.” The tourist attraction said on X, formerly Twitter, that it reopened hours later after checks. It was the third time since the weekend that the palace had to evacuate visitors.

Meanwhile three airports in the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Lille received emailed threats Wednesday, police said, without elaborating on the nature of the threats. The airports all reopened to passengers and staff after security checks.

The evacuations were the latest in a series around France that included another popular tourist attraction, the Louvre Museum in Paris. They followed the killing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras on Friday by a suspected Islamist extremist. The threats have so far proved false.