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paris drones

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Paris authorities have issued a new alert after ten more drones have been spotted flying over the French capital.

According to new reports, police are searching for four men after a chase in the east of Paris.

The latest drones were seen hovering near the Eiffel Tower and several other areas further away from the centre.

Some 60 drones have been sighted since October 2014, over nuclear installations and central Paris, the government says.

The most recent have all been seen over Paris, prompting security fears after the murders of 17 people last month.

Security at key sites in Paris was tightened last month after the killings by Islamist gunmen at Charlie Hebdo magazine, in Montrouge and kosher supermarket HyperCacher.

Photo AFP

Photo AFP

Flying drones over Paris is banned without a license and no night flights are allowed over the city at all. The heightened security presence was thought to be one of the reasons why the unmanned aerial vehicles were spotted.

There was a sighting in January over the Elysee Palace, home of President Francois Hollande, and last week near the US embassy.

Police sources told French media that the latest drones appeared at around 22:00 on March 3.

One of the machines was spotted by police on patrol close to Porte de Montreuil, on the edge of the city, French news channel BFM-TV reports.

They chased the drone in their car but lost track of it because of traffic.

The report suggested that the drone had been recovered by four men further south at Porte de Vincennes but they fled in a black car on the nearby Paris ring road.

The authorities have been unable to establish who is behind the drones.

The incidents above nuclear plants in the autumn were blamed on environmental activists, but no-one has admitted involvement in the latest incidents.

On March, an Al-Jazeera journalist, Tristan Redman, was fined €1,000 ($1,120) for flying a drone in the Bois de Boulogne park on the west side of the city last week, but that was not considered related to the case.

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French authorities have arrested three al-Jazeera journalists for the alleged illegal flying of a drone in Paris after being spotted by police in the Bois de Boulogne area.

A spokesman for prosecutors said there was “no relationship for the moment” between the arrests and mysterious drone flights over the city at night.

Drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks five times for a second night running on February 24.Paris mystery drones

Flying drones over Paris without a license is banned by law.

The offense carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a €75,000 ($85,000) fine.

A judicial source told AFP news agency of the three people arrested: “The first was piloting the drone, the second was filming and the third was watching.”

The names and nationalities of the journalists have not been released. Al-Jazeera is a Qatar-based satellite TV channel.

It is against the law for any aircraft to fly lower than 19,700ft over central Paris. Flying any aircraft under that ceiling – including drones, police helicopters and air ambulances – requires permission from city authorities.

Flying a drone at night is banned completely.