Members of a special firefighter climbing unit and police negotiators have persuaded a male intruder who scaled the Eiffel Tower to surrender.

Police earlier swarmed the iconic Paris landmark after the man began climbing the iconic Paris monument, forcing its temporary closure.

The Tower was evacuated and surrounding areas cordoned off, including the esplanade underneath the monument and a large section of the adjacent Champ de Mars park.

A Paris police official said the man was “under control and out of danger” on Monday night local time.

Managers said the tower would reopen on Tuesday morning as usual and promised to reimburse people with reserved tickets whose visits were thwarted.

Security agents spotted the man climbing up from the second floor in the early afternoon, triggering an operation to evacuate the 2,500 visitors on the monument including people dining on the second level.

The man eventually stopped his climb just below the third level, which is the highest level of the 324-meter tower, and stayed there.

His motives remain unclear and authorities have declined to identify him.

EIFFEL TOWER SHUTDOWN: Emergency responders in Paris are trying to rescue a man who scaled the top of the Eiffel Tower, putting the iconic landmark on lock down. The man used the official entrance and started to climb the exterior from the second floor. https://t.co/G1LPAezH4R

— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) May 20, 2019

The person could be seen dangling just below the third and highest level of the structure on Monday (Australian time). A fireman was just above him after rappelling down from the third-floor observation deck near the top.

Images show the fireman perched on the 324-metre tower’s wrought-iron struts. It appears he is trying to persuade the unknown man to give himself up.

France’s BFM TV reported that he had threatened to commit suicide.

“The man entered the tower normally and started to climb once he was on the second floor,” a spokeswoman for the tower’s operator told Reuters.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the trespasser managed to get past the stringent security system.

An official SETE operator said in a Twitter post that it is “standard procedure” for the tower to remain closed until the climber was stopped in his tracks.

“We kindly advise our visitors to postpone their visit,” they tweeted.

One visitor said: “Some kind of security incident at the Eiffel Tower. We are at the top and not allowed to leave. Reports that someone is climbing the tower. Anyone know anything?”

A police source told AFP they have made contact with the climber but still didn’t know why he decided to scale the building.

Huge crowds can be seen gazing up at the perilous operation from the ground below.

The Eiffel Tower will be closed until further notice, its operator said in a statement.

-with agencies