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Noon turnout average in French presidential poll, security scare at Louvre

Turnout at noon in the deciding round of France's 2017 presidential election was 28.23 percent, lower than at the same time during the last such poll in 2012. At 5.00pm it was 65.30 percent. The square where centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron is to appear after the result was closed for a short period for a securiuty check in the afternoon.

Sécuristy alert at the Louvre on polling day
Sécuristy alert at the Louvre on polling day RFI/Pierre René-Worms
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The midday turnout was lower than the 30.66 percent in the 2012 second round and slightly down on the 28.54 in this year's first round.

Turnout is usually high in French elections, particularly presidential ones where it is generally about 80 percent.

Macron and his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, voted in the morning, as did outgoing President François Hollande, who did not stand this year.

Louvre plaza closed

Police closed the square in front of the Louvre museum, where a stage has been erected for Macron to speak after the result is announced, at 1.00pm local time because of an unattended package.

About 300 journalists were obliged to leave the press centre set up for the occasion but the alert was over by 2.30pm.

To read our French presidential election 2017 coverage click here

The vote is taking place under a state of emergency, imposed after the November 2015 Paris attacks, with troops and 50,000 police on duty on polling day.

There have been a number of terror attacks since 2015.

In February a knife-wielding Egyptian attacked soldiers in the underground shopping mall attached to the Louvre.

A man who had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State armed group was arrested near a military airbase early on Friday and a gunman shot a police officer dead on Paris's Champs Elysées three days before the presidential first round.

Chicks disrupt voting

Voters in the village of Lande-Chasles, in western France, were obliged to take a detour on the way to the ballot box on Sunday.

A family of coal tits has taken up residence in a disused letter box at the main entrance to the mayor's office, which doubles as the village's polling station for the day.

To avoid disturbing the five chicks and their mother, the village's 84 registered voters were sent to a side door.

"We had the eggs during the first round," mayor Jean-Christophe Rouxel told the AFP news agency, adding that the chick's chirping fills the building at the moment.

The tits have been nesting in the letter box for 20 years, Rouxel said.

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