A bomb threat at the Eiffel Tower forced hundreds of tourists to evacuate the site Friday afternoon. The spot was later reopened to the public, two hours after the alert was found to just be a scare.

According to the Huffington Post, police sent a bomb disposal unit to survey the Paris tourist spot after they received an anonymous phone call warning of a bomb around 2 p.m. local time. After searching the area and finding "nothing suspicious" the tower was reopened two hours after.

"Police evacuated visitors and searched the tower," Paris police spokesman Joel Saliou told the Wall Street Journal in a telephone interview.

Tourists had to descend around 700 steps to evacuate the 1,063-foot Paris attraction, Newsmax reports.

The closing down of the Eiffel Tower was also prompted by the tightening of security in the U.S. and Western countries. ABC News notes a serious threat from Al Qaeda was found to be aimed at these areas, thus the need for strict safety rules.

"The intent is to attack Western, not just U.S. interests," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told the news website. "There is a significant threat stream and we're reacting to it."

Newsmax adds that France has also remained under high alert after its "military intervention" in Mali pushed Al Qaeda to aim threats at the European country as well.

According to the WSJ, at this time of year there are over 25,000 visitors to the tower every day -- it is one of the five most visited sites in the country and could be a likely target for terrorism.

The Huffing Post also notes that while the Eiffel Tower is a common target for bomb scares, it is rarely causes full evacuations. After the bomb scare, the Eiffel Tower returned to its regular operations.