Religious statues which sit atop Notre Dame Cathedral have come down for the first time in more than a century as part of a restoration of the Paris c

A 100-metre high crane lowered the copper statues representing the twelve apostles and four evangelists on to a truck.

The operation gave the public a ground-level look at the statues for the first time.

The figures' regular posts look over the French capital from Notre Dame's 96-metre high peak.

The three-metre tall statues are being sent to south-western France.

Décrochées grâce à une grue de 120 mètres de haut, ces statues de Notre-Dame de Paris vont être restaurées pic.twitter.com/lmzjF8bCVJ

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) April 11, 2019

It is part of a renovation project on the cathedral spire and its 250 tons (226 tonnes) of lead.

The project will cost six million euro (£5 million).

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