Melbourne, May 18 (IANS): Over 20,000 "love locks", clipped to a foot-bridge here in Australia, will be removed due to safety concerns, a media report said on Monday.

For the past three years, couples visiting the foot-bridge have been writing two names on a padlock and throwing away the key as a sign of their undying commitment, ABC reported.

However, Melbourne City Council said the weight of the locks had left the cables sagging and needed to be removed.

"We're going to have to re-deck that bridge and we'll have to re-do the safety barrier wires, so it's time [the locks] came off," Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle said.

Doyle said he was not convinced the locks had become a tourist attraction.

He said he was seeking alternatives to replacing the locks on the bridge, asking residents to come up with ideas on where to store the locks of love.

"If anyone has any idea what I can do with 20,000 locks, I'd love to hear it," he said.

Work to remove the locks is expected to get underway from Tuesday.

In 2014, Paris's Pont des Arts bridge partially collapsed under the weight of the love locks, prompting worldwide safety concerns in cities that had similar gestures of love.

The tradition started in 2008 and by the time the bridge collapsed, there were over 700,000 locks.