Strasbourg Cathedral, a tourist and iconic building of the eastern French city, was briefly evacuated on Wednesday afternoon after a false bomb threat, police said, according to AFP.

“The Strasbourg Cathedral has just been evacuated following a malicious call,” the police of the Lower Rhine department wrote on the X network. “A security perimeter has been established. We make every effort to resolve any doubts as soon as possible. Please avoid this area and support the work of rescuers.”

According to a police source, the evacuation was ordered following an unidentified phone call received at approximately 3:45 p.m. local time (4:45 p.m. Romanian time) reporting that a bomb had been planted in the cathedral and was about to explode. .

Then the building, which is often visited by tourists, was evacuated and a security perimeter was established.

According to a police source, a security check carried out in and around the cathedral, which turned up nothing suspicious, allowed the security perimeter to be lifted after about an hour.

The incident comes as several high schools and colleges have also recently been targeted by false bomb alerts in both the Alsace region and the rest of France.