Eurostar passengers stranded in Paris overnight after 'suspect package' sparks security alert at Gare Du Nord station

Chaos: Passengers said they had faced hours of delays
David MacLean
Hannah Al-Othman30 May 2016

Hundreds of Eurostar passengers have been forced to spend the night in Paris after a security scare coupled with engineering work prevented services from running to London.

Trains between Paris and London were hit by long delays this evening after a suspect package was discovered at Gare Du Nord station.

Passengers have said they have faced delays of up to five hours, which are said to have been sparked by an abandoned rucksack being discovered at the Paris terminal.

However, a Eurostar spokeswoman said trains were only delayed by up to 90 minutes.

She added that due to planned engineering work, which was due to take place overnight on railway lines running out of the French capital, the late-running services would not be able to depart.

At least two trains out of Paris were called, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and forced to find accommodation for the night.

Mark Berry, who was due to travel home to London tonight, said passengers had not been kept informed as to the reason for the delays.

He told the Standard: "When I arrived for my train back to London, there were crowds, all apparently queuing but in different queues, if you could call them that.

"There was no one visible from Eurostar and still isn't.

"Eventually, I managed to work out that the train due to leave two hours before mine was just boarding, but the screen still claimed mine would be only 30 mins delayed. That became an hour, and that hour had been and gone, without our so much as being able to check in.

"One announcement was made claiming there had been a 'suspicious package' during the afternoon.

"Now wondering if I'll get back at all tonight, let alone if I'll make the last Tube and DLR home.

"The worst thing is that there seems to be no one at all on the ground to whom any of us can speak."

He later said he was told he would have to stay in Paris overnight.

He told the Standard: "Train was eventually cancelled. Left to ourselves to find hotels and told to try to book return tomorrow.

"I got soaked running round hotel to hotel. I have only just found one miles away, to which I'm going in a cab now.

"A lot of very unhappy people here tonight. I'm an academic and am missing an important exams meeting at my university tomorrow morning now."

Long queues: some passengers have been told they will have to stay in Paris overnight
David MacLean

Another passenger, David MacLean, who lives in east London and was making his way home from Paris, told the Standard he had been delayed by two hours boarding the train, and faced more delays while on board.

He told the Standard the train had stopped while travelling through France without giving passengers an explanation.

"Apparently the delays are due to a suspicious package found earlier in the day," he said.

"It has just gone 10pm here and we are still not moving. This is the 20.07 train but the lady opposite me has been waiting since 17.30.

"We've been quite lucky in that we are on the 20.07 we were originally booked on but others have not been so lucky.

"People just want to get home now after very poor weather in Paris over the long weekend."

Kamaljeet Gill, 32, from Holloway, also said he had been left stranded for several hours.

He told the Standard: "About six hours ago they found an abandoned rucksack.

"We arrived an hour early to get on our 8:37 pm train to find chaos. At least four different queues which snaked round the whole platform, no signs up directing people to the right queue.

"We joined one waited for over an hour in a queue, our train was delayed by 30 mins, then an hour, then 75 minutes.

"It got to forty minutes until we were meant to leave and we were nowhere near the front so my girlfriend asked one of the two members of staff who occasionally patrolled the queues what was happening.

"She said our train was boarding right then, and we needed to be in another queue entirely, so we moved. I don't know what happened to the people in our old queue, and finally got on our train.

"We're just about to depart at 10.15. We were only on Paris because the last time we came home from France on the Eurostar it was delayed over an hour so they have us a free journey."

He later said he had boarded a train, but had been sat on board for 20 minutes without moving, and was unsure if they would make it home tonight.

"It wouldn't be a huge problem for me but my girlfriend has to be at work tomorrow. And the cat will not be happy with us," he said.

Security scare: the delays were caused by a suspect package
David MacLean

Another passenger, who asked not to be named, also said the delays had been sparked by "security issues due to a suspicious package".

He told the Standard there was "no communication", which "made the security situation even worse as hundreds of people were stuffed like sardines inside Gare du Nord".

"Some thinking needs to be done before Euro 2016 starts in France," he added.

"Crazy there is no procedure in place for security alerts."

He later said police were called in to control passengers at the station.

He told the Standard: "They left people inside without any explanations before cancelling the train.

"We were told to go home and still held hostage on the platform.

"Now we are held by the police on the platform; just freed as we speak.

"After a three hour wait we won't be getting to London."

A Eurostar spokeswoman said: "Earlier this afternoon the station was evacuated as a precautionary decision due to left luggage.

"Check-in reopened very quickly after but unfortunately because of engineering work occuring on the French line overnight our last trains are unable to leave the station."

She said passengers had faced delays of "up to 90 minutes, which were a "knock-on effect linked to the precautionary evacuation."

She added that passengers standed in Paris would be provided with taxis and hotels and rebooked on trains leaving early tomorrow morning.

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