THE EIFFEL Tower, Paris's best known landmark, has been closed to tourists until further notice because of a strike by staff protesting over the withdrawal of car parking rights for night shift workers.
Visitors were turned away today after staff of the Societe Nouvelle d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel stopped work to demand the restoration of the right to park their cars in the Champs de Mars garden beneath the monument.
The city wants to make the area a pedestrian zone. The company has rented underground parking space for its staff but they complain it is too far away.
The lifts, which an average 15,000 tourists normally take each day to gain a panoramic view of the French capital, remained closed. The tower also houses two restaurants, shops and broadcasting transmitters.
The company, which estimated its loss of earnings at £80,000 a day, said it would not negotiate with unions representing the 180 staff until they reopened the tower.
Meanwhile, German public employees stepped up their warning strikes yesterday, hitting towns and cities mainly in parts of the country that had until now remained immune to the disruption.
Trams and buses stayed in their depots during the morning rush hour in eastern Germany, letters went undelivered in cities spared by Monday's action, and office workers in Bonn's federal institutions downed their pens.