PARIS: Around 2,000 people were evacuated from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Friday because of snow on the roof of a terminal that partly collapsed shortly after opening in 2004, an airport source said.
People remained calm during the evacuation of Terminal 2E, described as a precautionary measure taken because of around 60 centimetres (two feet) of accumulated snow on the roof.
Emergency workers were deployed to clear the roof, a task expected to last until around 1400 GMT, the source said.
A few weeks after the terminal was opened in 2004, a section of the roof of the architecturally ambitious building designed by Frenchman Paul Andreu collapsed, killing four foreign travellers and injuring six others.
Around 2,000 stranded travellers spent Thursday night at Charles de Gaulle, the French capital’s main airport, after hundreds of flights were cancelled because of icy weather gripping much of western Europe.
Civil aviation authorities said that around 35 percent of flights on Friday afternoon would be cancelled, with many passengers running the risk of spending the night, when the French traditionally see in Christmas Day with muxch festivity, trapped at the airport.
