India, Sept. 30 -- The head of the company that runs the Eiffel Tower will step down at the end of the year after female staff at the landmark building in Paris were excluded during a visit by a Hindu religious group.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, director general of the Societe d'Exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE), will leave his post after an investigation conducted by an independent firm uncovered a series of operational failures in relation to the visit on Sept. 5.

The failures resulted "in female staff being excluded from the visit that day, an unacceptable situation," a SETE statement on Tuesday said. Ruivo was appointed at the end of 2018.

The Eiffel Tower, which attracts 7 million visitors a year, was closed on Sept. 7 due to a staf...