PARIS: A bomb threat on Sunday targeted the Paris book fair, forcing organisers to evacuate visitors to the literary event, which this year is honouring Israeli writers despite a Muslim boycott, police said.

Visitors were told to leave the Paris exhibition hall shortly before 5 pm (1600 GMT) for a security check and they were allowed to return an hour later, according to a journalist at the site.

Several Arab and Muslim countries and writers groups are boycotting the book fair because Israeli writers have been invited to mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.

Amos Oz, David Grossman and Avraham B. Yehoshua are among the 39 Israeli authors invited to the book fest that opened on Friday.

Mine-clearance experts were dispatched to the venue and a large police presence was deployed in the area.

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation last month called on its 50-member states to stay away, arguing Israel’s “crimes against humanity” in the Palestinian territories make it “unworthy” of such an honour.—AFP