Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower shut to tourists for several hours on Friday after staff walked off the job in protest over 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, follows a similar strike at the Louvre museum in 2013 when staff protested over often violent pickpockets stalking the halls of the palace.

Workers at the 126-year-old iron lattice tower — a glittering symbol of Paris — finally went back to work at around 4:00pm (local time), after hundreds of disappointed tourists were turned away throughout the day.

The workers 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".

One of the striking workers told AFP that pickpockets "form a gang of four to five people ... sometimes there can be around 30".

The worker added that the pickpockets sometimes "fight among themselves".

Another worker said he had been threatened while chasing away a pickpocket.

"He said to me 'why don't you let us work ... if this continues you will have problems'," the worker said.

They said they wanted "formal guarantees from management that lasting and effective measures will be taken to end this scourge to which numerous tourists fall victim every day".

No details were given about the agreement which saw workers return their posts in the late afternoon.

Tourists set on visiting monument left disappointed

The closure of the monument, which attracts some 7 million tourists a year, left hundreds of visitors disappointed.

"It might be the only chance for my brother to visit the tower," Tushar Kardile said.

Mr Kardile, from London, was visiting Paris with his brother from India.

"We had booked reserved tickets. We are quite disappointed," he said.

"They have every right to go on strike. But they should warn the public in advance."

Elena Sofronova from Russia said: "They just told us that they were on strike. We came here for our son's sixth birthday. He is a bit disappointed."

The company charged with overseeing the management of the monument said in a statement it "regrets that visitors already present are being punished".

It said management was working with police to take measures "guaranteeing the security of staff and public".

Back in April 2013, hundreds of tourists were left disappointed when the Louvre — which is home to works of art such as the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo — was shut after staff complained of being spat at, insulted and even hit by pickpockets.

Extra police were sent to patrol the attraction, which is visited by 10 million tourists annually.

Paris, which received 22 million visitors in 2014 according to city figures, is one of the world's top tourist destinations and a mecca for pickpockets.

Asian tourists are particularly targeted due to a rise in wealthy travellers from countries such as China.

After complaints about muggings and attacks on Chinese tourists, last year the French interior ministry recruited Chinese police to help patrol tourist destinations in Paris.

The Liberation daily newspaper reported on Friday that some 26,000 police and municipal agents would be deployed onto the streets of Paris this summer to deal with pickpockets.

Paris police chief Bernard Boucault was reported as saying that a dedicated plan put in place in the European summer of 2013 - from June to August - had led to a 10 per cent decrease in thefts accompanied with violence.

AFP