Section of the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris,France fell away on Sunday June 08,2014

 

Tourists have been evacuated from one of the most iconic bridges in Paris after it began to crumble under the weight of thousands of 'love locks'.

 

A chunk of the Pont des Arts bridge fell away on Sunday night  June 08,2014 and the police were called to seal off the area which remains closed today.

It is a popular custom for tourists to secure a padlock to the bridge branded with their names as a romantic gesture

 

 

Police said it was lucky the rail collapsed inwards rather than out into the river below, which is often busy with tourist boats

 

THE PONT DES ARTS AND ITS PADLOCK HISTORY...

• The famous Paris bridge is said to offer some of the best views along the Seine

 

• It was first built between 1802 and 1804, under the reign of Napoleon, and is a favourite with artists

• Due to damage sustained in WW1 and WW2, the bridge was rebuilt between 1981 and 1984

• The 'love lock' tradition began in Hungary in the early 20th century, based on a tale of a woman who lost her soldier love to another during WW1. Young women started symbolising their love by attaching padlocks to the bridge where the abandoned woman used to meet her lost lover.

• The padlock tradition took hold in Western Europe in the early 2000s and was popularised by an Italian book I Want You by Federico Moccia, in which a couple adds a padlock to the Ponte Milvio in Rome.

• In Paris, the ritual began in 2008 on the Pont des Arts but has since extended to the Pont de l’Archevêché near Notre Dame too.

• Othe bridges encountering problems from a vast quantity of padlocks being affixed are the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and the Ponte l’Accademia in Venice.