The blades of the Moulin Rouge cabaret club’s world-famous windmill fell off and crashed into the street overnight, firefighters said.
The collapsed structure took with it the first three letters of the theater’s iconic illuminated sign, with images showing the red tower without candles above the damaged façade.
“Fortunately this happened after the closure,” said a Moulin Rouge official. “We don’t know what happened, it happened between 02:00 and 03:00, no one was injured,” they explained, adding that the last show of the night ended at 01:15.
“Every week, the cabaret’s technical teams check the mechanism of the mill and have not detected any problems,” the source said, adding that there was no further information on the reason for the collapse.
They added that this is the first time an accident like this has occurred since the historic attraction, famous for being the birthplace of the can-can dance, opened its doors more than 130 years ago.
The blades of the famous windmill at the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris have fallen off
BEFORE: The windmill sails with its famous bright lights atop the famous red tower.
Workers load the broken sails onto a truck to remove them after the sinking.
Surprised passersby stopped, looked and took photos of the windmill’s damaged sails, crumpled on the ground.
Cordons and barricades were observed around the unit, which was covered with a tarp before being removed this morning.
BEFORE: Hundreds of thousands of tourists come every year to see shows at the theater. Pictured: British dancers outside the Moulin Rouge in 2022
Firefighters said no one was injured in the incident and there was no risk of further collapse. The reason for the accident is still unknown.
Images on social media showed the shovel unit lying in the street surrounded by a cordon, with some of the shovels bent and damaged from the fall.
Video taken by an early shift worker showed where the famous shovels had crashed, with barriers placed around them as they covered part of the road.
The structure was removed from the road and covered with a green tarp and surrounded with security cordons.
Throughout the morning, surprised passers-by stopped, looked and took photographs of the unusual scene before loading the candles onto the back of a truck and taking them away.
Paris police chief Laurent Núñez told broadcaster TF1 that “security architects” had been sent to the scene.
“I can’t believe it,” said Exauce, a chef at the cabaret who asked not to give his middle name. He saw the blades on the ground when he arrived for work around 8:00 a.m.
“It’s like they cut off the top of the Eiffel Tower, it hurts,” said Daniel, a 58-year-old man who said he passes the Moulin Rouge every day on his way to work.
“I hope they fix it soon,” he added.
Part of the structure is seen on the street in front of the cabaret club before being removed.
The red tower at the top of the famous Paris landmark is seen today without candles after the incident.
The dramatic incident at one of Paris’s most famous landmarks occurred just months before the French capital is set to host the Olympic Games.
It could raise concerns about whether Paris, one of the world’s most visited cities, is ready to welcome the thousands more arriving during July and August.
The Moulin Rouge cabaret, with its distinctive red windmill blades, is located in the north of Paris and is one of the most visited places in the city.
Known as the birthplace of modern can-can dance, it opened its doors in October 1889 at the foot of the Montmartre hill.
It quickly became a hit and a stop to admire its gleaming façade or see a show inside is a must-see on most tourists’ list of things to do in the City of Light.
The sails of the iconic red windmill atop the Moulin Rouge, Paris’s most famous cabaret club, are seen on the ground.
A photo shows the Moulin Rouge around 1895. The building was damaged by fire in 1915.
The windmill opened to the public for the first time in 2022 and tourists were able to win an overnight stay at the boudoir inside.
The theater inspired the 2001 Oscar-winning film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.
It attracts about 600,000 visitors a year and offers two performances each night.
The only serious accident that the monument has suffered was a fire that occurred during construction in 1915 and which forced the site to close for nine years.