PARIS — Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists on Friday as staff walked off the job to protest a surge in gangs of pickpockets roaming around the monument. The closure of one of the busiest tourist attractions in the French capital ahead of a long weekend recalls a similar strike at the Louvre museum in 2013 as staff protested often violent pickpockets stalking the halls of the palace. Workers at the 126-year-old iron lattice tower — a glittering symbol of Paris — said in a statement they had chosen to down tools due to an “increase in pickpockets around the Eiffel Tower and several threats and assaults.” — AFP