Arc de Triomphe area in Paris evacuated following bomb alert -police

The area around the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris has been evacuated following a bomb alert, a police spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday.

He said subway lines in the area were also being evacuated. France is on high alert following the beheading of a teacher earlier this month by an 18-year old Muslim man angry about the use of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a civics lesson.

There have been several false bomb alerts, most recently in the Lyon railway station last week and at the Eifel Tower a month ago.