Louvre reopens after being evacuated over bomb threat just hours before it’s due to host Macron

The French presidential election was rocked by a security alert in the heart of Paris today.

The courtyard outside the Louvre museum, where Emmanuel Macron plans to hold an election night victory party, was evacuated on police orders after a bomb threat.

Macron’s campaign press office said it was a ‘suspicious bag’ that prompted the evacuation.

Anti-terror police asked visitors and some 300 journalists to leave the historic courtyard with immediate effect following the alert at about 1pm.

Heavily armed officers and specially trained sniffer dogs then began to scour the area outside the Louvre museum where the Mona Lisa painting is one of many priceless art works on display.

Hundreds of tourists and journalists queued outside the historic building in the rain as police swarmed into the closed courtyard, which was reopened some 90 minutes later.

The Paris police Tweeted a reassuring message: ‘(hash)Louvre These are simple verification measures carried out as precautionary measure.’

A witness told MailOnline: ‘The whole of the courtyard was evacuated. Everyone in the esplanade de Louvre was told to leave immediately.

‘That was about 1.15pm. Now the police are searching the area with dogs. There was a bomb threat.’

The election, in which Macron is competing against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, is being conducted under the watch of 50,000 security forces guarding against extremist attacks.

The Louvre was already being heavily guarded after an extremist targeted soldiers near the museum during the presidential campaign.

Macron picked the dignified internal courtyard of the renowned palace-turned-museum as the location for his post-election rally.

Presidential rival Marine Le Pen will hold her post election rally at a restaurant away from the Paris centre.

MORE: Louvre courtyard evacuated in security alert  | Daily Mail Online