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There are pickpockets in Paris. This is not news. The problem has reached such an extent that the Louvre had to close yesterday after its employees, frustrated by having to deal with organized gangs, staged a wildcat strike.
The Louvre is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, and on an average day 30,000 visitors pass through its doors. Increasingly, many of those guests are falling victim to pickpockets who arrive in gangs and undertake organized raids targeting both staff and visitors.
A hundred workers walked off the job Wednesday, protesting their apparent powerlessness against the hooligans, who have become more aggressive. Museum staff report regular occurrences of various kinds of abuse inflicted on workers as they dealt with pickpockets, such as being spat on, threatened, and physically abused. The problem has intensified despite a variety of measures that have been introduced in recent months.
Read more about this in The Guardian