Moulin Rouge's windmill blades fall off in apparent mystery

Residents of Paris were left shocked after waking to find the blades from the iconic Moulin Rouge windmill had fallen off.

Located in the “City of Love”, the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret nightclub has been a pull for tourists visiting the city. It was founded in 1889 and is the birthplace of the can-can dance.

The club famously has a red windmill mounted on its roof, but overnight on Thursday 25 April, the blades of the iconic structure fell off and were found mysteriously lying on the pavement, with some pictures on social media showing them bent. In addition, the first three letters of the venue signage appear to have come down.

No one was injured by the incident, which is believed to have happened in the early hours of Thursday morning.

At present, the Parisian authorities remain in doubt as to what caused the incident and why the blades fell. The blades have been collected and removed, and it is not believed the windmill poses any further danger.

The venue’s general manager Jean-Victor Clerico, said: “The Moulin Rouge, in 135 years of history, has experienced many adventures but it is true that for the wings, this is the first time that this has happened.”

He continued: “A little before 2am, the wings of the windmill gave way, fell on the boulevard and fortunately at this time the boulevard was empty of passers-by.”

An official told the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, that the venue has a technical team that checks the windmill structure and the mechanisms every week. No issues had been reported prior to the blades falling down.

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 ranking