Police evacuate Louvre ahead of Macron speech

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May 7, 2017 1:36 PM

Police have evacuated the Louvre in Paris, where presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was expected to speak, after finding a suspicious bag.

French police secure the site near the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France, February 3, 2017 after a French soldier shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he tried to enter the Louvre museum in central Paris carrying a suitcase, police sources said.

"Following the detection of a suspicious bag, the 300 journalists (who were processing their accreditation), were asked to leave the area for security reasons and taken to a different area," an official from Macron's campaign said, according to the Independent.

Macron had intended to celebrate a possible victory in the French election on Sunday night in the courtyard in front of the museum.

Police have been on alert since February, when a man attacked and lightly wounded a soldier near the Louvre museum. The soldier sustained a small wound on his scalp, while a second soldier shot at the attacker five times and seriously wounded him. The attacker, while conscious, was transferred to the Pompidou hospital.

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