Eurostar to resume London-Paris services on Saturday

Eurostar said it expects to resume services between London and Paris on Saturday.

The operator cancelled all 32 trains scheduled to run between the cities on Friday after the discovery of an unexploded Second World War bomb near tracks in the French capital.

The company said it will run one extra service in each direction on Saturday in addition to its usual timetable.

Thousands of passengers booked on services on Friday saw their travel plans wrecked.

Crowds gathered at London St Pancras and Paris Gare du Nord stations in the hope of boarding afternoon departures as initially only services in the morning were cancelled.

Charlotte Liddell, from London, was planning to travel to Paris on Friday for her hen party.

With some others in the party already in Paris after flying from northern England, said told the PA news agency: “It’s the hen do without the hen!”

She added: “We’re very upset.”

Fran Birch, one of Ms Liddell’s maids of honour, said the age of the bomb means the authorities should “just let it lie”.

Lauren Romeo-Smith, part of a group booked to visit Paris for a birthday celebration, said: “We would have thought there would be more Eurostar staff.

“We’re looking up flights, but our options are limited.”

Eurostar said in a statement: “Eurostar sincerely apologises for the disruption and understands the inconvenience this may cause.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience and co-operation during this time.”

Nearly 300 police officers were deployed to secure the area of Saint-Denis while bomb-disposal experts arrived at the scene from 4.30am, French transport minister Philippe Tabarot told the French media during a press conference shortly after 4pm on Friday.

He added that schools were evacuated and residents were asked to stay indoors as a result of the bomb’s discovery, but said the bomb-disposal operation has now ended.

He said: “We are delighted and relieved that all this has come to an end.”

Rail traffic is expected to resume “progressively” from 6pm, Mr Tabarot added.

He said: “The whole northern part of our country was paralysed – almost 500 trains and 600,000 people in Gare du Nord, and it affected international travel.

“I want to sincerely thank all the people who took part in this complex operation, including the residents who agreed to move away so that the work could be carried out in the best possible conditions, and the bomb-disposal experts who arrived from 4.30 in the morning, and the teams of SNCF who discovered this bomb during the night as they worked on our network.

“I would like to thank the police forces, almost 300 police officers who intervened.”

Mr Tabarot also addressed all passengers who were affected by the incident and “had a bit of a chaotic day” as a result.

He said: “I hope they will understand that we could not do otherwise, that we had to take all the usual procedures and necessary precautions, because the circumstances required us to do so.”

Fridays are one of the busiest days of the week for Eurostar as many leisure travellers embark on international weekend breaks.

Passengers whose trains were cancelled were given the option of requesting a refund or voucher for the value of their booking, or to rebook for travel on an alternative service.

British Airways said it added an extra flight in each direction between Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle on Friday, and is using larger aircraft on the route to further increase capacity.

It was selling seats on one of its flights for £463.

All three of easyJet’s flights from Gatwick to Charles de Gaulle after midday on Friday were fully booked.

P&O Ferries said it has added extra sailings for foot passengers between Dover and Calais.

The bomb was discovered at around 4am on Friday during work on tracks in the St Denis area of northern Paris.

This resulted in the suspension of all services to and from Gare du Nord, which is Eurostar’s station in Paris.

Gare du Nord also connects Paris with other international destinations such as in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as being used for domestic services.

It is considered the world’s busiest railway station outside Japan.

Bombs left over from the world wars are regularly discovered in France, but it is rare for them to be found in such densely populated areas.

Eurostar trains between London and Brussels were unaffected.