Eurostar chaos after 800 passengers trapped in Channel Tunnel for over two hours
Chaos struck on the Eurostar this morning as more than 800 passengers were stuck on a train in the channel for over two hours.
The train had departed London St Pancras at 6:01am this morning and was due to arrive at Paris Gare du Nord at 9.20 Parisian time.
But around an hour into the journey, the Eurostar service broke down in the channel.
Gaby Koppel, a television producer told The Independent: ‘We stopped in the tunnel about an hour into the journey, so roughly 7am UK time.
‘There were occasional loudspeaker announcements saying they did not know what the fault was.
‘Eventually they said at 9am that we would get going ‘in 20 minutes’ but we are still here.
‘Some of the lighting in the carriage has been switched down, but it has become very stuffy in the carriage.’
More than two-and-a-half hours later later, the train eventually began moving at 9.30am.
Other passengers spoke of the stationary train becoming ‘very hot.’
Passengers were eventually evacuated to Calais in Western France to wait for a replacement train.
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Disgruntled train riders though, have reportedly waited almost four hours for their replacement.
A Eurostar statement read: ‘Service update: Train 9080 had a technical issue this morning.
‘This train is now running at reduced speed to Calais where passengers will be transferred to another Eurostar train to continue their journey to Paris. Thank you for your understanding and our apologies for the delay.
‘During the Calais transfer, customers were offered hot drinks and water.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our priority. We’re really sorry for the inconvenience and delay to their journey today.
‘As a result of the incident this morning, Eurostar services to and from Paris are experiencing delays of up to an hour.’
The disruption this morning occurred on one of the busiest travelling days of the year.
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