Paris train services resume slowly after WW2 bomb defused

An unexploded World War Two bomb found near Gare du Nord station in Paris was defused on Friday after trains to and from the station – one of Europe‘s biggest – were cancelled.

All Eurostar international services to and from the station were halted. Eurostar said its services would be back to normal on Saturday, and two extra return train journeys to London and Brussels had been added.

Local rail traffic resumed on Friday evening at Gare du Nord, but the French operators SNCF and RATP said the schedule remained disrupted.

French police evacuated 200 people from homes in Saint-Denis and temporarily closed part of the suburb’s main ring road.

The 500kg bomb was found two metres deep at a building site north of Gare du Nord, where rail workers were putting up a new bridge over the railway lines.

Eurostar’s Chief Safety and Stations Officer Simon Lejeune said the situation was “complex” and it was the “better option” to cancel all 32 services between London and Paris because it would give passengers “clarity” amid the “uncertainty”.

He said he was “incredibly sorry” for the travel disruption and the issues customers had faced accessing the Eurostar app.

He told travellers they should be able to access the website to change their booking, get a refund or get a voucher.

The bomb was discovered 200m away from the busy Paris périphérique, about 2.5km (1.5 miles) north of Gare du Nord, Europe’s busiest train station.

A nearby short northern stretch of the ring road and the A1 motorway were shut around Porte de la Chapelle. Traffic jams were recorded on 218km of roads in the Paris region.

Authorities in Saint-Denis said there were six schools and a care facility for elderly people inside the evacuation zone, but they were not at risk, because they did not have windows overlooking the area.

Homes with windows in a 500m (1,600ft) radius of the bomb were evacuated.

Eurostar services were running normally between Brussels and Marne-la-Vallée to the east of Paris as well as trains between London and Brussels and London and Amsterdam.

High-speed TGV trains into Gare du Nord were also badly hit, although some services were diverted to Gare de Lyon in Paris.

The railyards around occupied Paris were regular targets for British and American bombers during World War Two, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris reports.

Eurostar said passengers would be able to exchange their tickets for free to travel at another date or time in the same class, subject to availability.

“Eurostar will run two additional trains [on Saturday]: a train leaving London for Paris in the morning, and a train leaving Paris for London in the afternoon,” it said in a statement.

Queues were beginning to form by 08:30 GMT at St Pancras train station in London as passengers tried to work out what they could do.

One group was approaching the front of the line after a two-and-a-half hour wait.

Their 07:00 GMT train was cancelled and they planned to travel to Lille and make a three-hour bus journey to Paris.

Jess Sayer from Norwich told the BBC on Friday morning that she was stuck in Paris with her husband and best friend after celebrating her 40th birthday on Thursday.

“We’re frantically on our phones trying to find out what to do,” she said, explaining they had not been able to book a train for Saturday via the website.

“We just tried to get a flight. All the flights are booked up so at the moment we are completely stuck in Paris with no way of getting home,” she said. “Do we get a hotel and risk trying to get the Eurostar home tomorrow? Or look into ferries?”

Her friend, Sarah Fitzgerald, said she was trying to get back to London to help her family prepare for a funeral on Monday.

The Paris cancellations coincided with the middle of Paris Fashion Week and meant that personal shopper Anna Griffiths was unable to travel to Paris for a function.

“We work with all of the designer brands, and Chloé Fashion House had invited me to Paris for their show and a showroom event and a big dinner tonight,” she said.

Ivana Koralek told the BBC she had decided to cancel a trip to see her elderly mother and nephew in France.

She said she had been unable to rebook for three weeks’ time because ticket machines in the station did not offer the discount she had originally received.

Karen Hamblin, from Chester, had travelled to London on Thursday evening to catch a Friday train to Paris for a three-day getaway to celebrate her husband’s birthday.

She said she was told at about 07:00 that their train was cancelled.

“As we were effectively stranded, we have decided to transfer our ticket and travel to Lille,” she said. “Lunch in Lille and [we’ll] then work out how to get to Paris from there!”

Additional reporting by Tom Symonds, James Kelly, Bernadette McCague and Laurence Peter.