Tourists have been evacuated from one of Paris’ most iconic bridges after it began to crumble under the weight of thousands of padlocks.
A chunk of the Pont des Arts bridge fell away on Sunday night and police were called to seal off the area which remains closed today.
It is a popular custom for tourists to secure a ‘love lock’ or padlock to the bridge branded with their names as a romantic gesture, and throw the key into the River Seine.
But the weight of the locks is damaging the metal bridge, which was originally completed in 1804 but rebuilt in the 1980s following damage in the two World Wars, reports the Daily Mail.
A local French police spokesperson said: "A metal grill had fallen inwards, rather than into the river.
"If it had landed on a passing boat, the results could have been disastrous. As it happened, nobody was injured."
If follows growing calls for the padlocks to be banned.
A ‘No Love Locks’ campaign – with the strapline ‘Free Your Love. Save Our Bridges’ – was launched in Paris by two Americans in February, in response to some 700,000 padlocks appearing around the city.
Last month, celebrity Kim Kardashian wrote her initials on a lock and placed it on the Pont l’Archeveche bridge in Paris.
* Picture courtesy of nolovelocks.com
