Drunk American tourists caught sleeping on the Eiffel Tower overnight

Two American tourists were discovered sleeping inside the Eiffel Tower on Monday after getting stuck while drunk.

Security guards found the two men in an area between the second and third levels that is usually closed to the public.

Paris prosecutors told AFP that they “appear to have got stuck because of how drunk they were”.

The American tourists reportedly paid their entrance fees at around 10.40 pm on Sunday evening. Police say they climbed over barriers on their way down the stairs from the top platform of the attraction. 

The men were found in the “early hours of the morning” before the Eiffel Tower opened to the public when guards were making their rounds.

A police source told AFP that firefighters and a specialist unit trained to rescue people from dangerous heights were called to help bring them down.

The usual opening time of 9am was delayed on Monday while authorities dealt with the inebriated tourists. It opened to visitors around an hour later at 10am.

Police questioned the tourists but prosecutors said that “as no damage was found, the charge of trespassing on a historical or cultural site was dismissed”.

The Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete), the publicly owned company that operates the Eiffel Tower said it would file a complaint against the pair but added that they “posed no apparent threat”.

The stunt comes after false bomb threats triggered two evacuations of the monument on Saturday.

Tourists were forced to leave all three floors of the tower including the restaurant and forecourt while police bomb disposal experts arrived on the scene. The site reopened later in the day once the threats had been found to be a hoax.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the false threats which were posted