Paris Gare du Nord trains halted after WW2 bomb found

French police halted train services to and from Paris Gare du Nord station on Friday after an unexploded World War Two bomb was found on tracks leading to the terminal, train companies reported.

The bomb was found on the tracks in the area of Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, during overnight works, Eurostar said in a statement.

Local trains to and from the station have been cancelled as of Friday morning, while Eurostar journeys on the London-Paris, Paris-London, Brussels-Paris and Paris-Brussels routes were cancelled for all of Friday.

Eurostar’s Brussels-Marne La Vallée, London-Brussels and London-Amsterdam trains are running normally.

“Due to the discovery last night of an unexploded bomb from the Second World War during work carried out on the tracks in St Denis (North of Paris), traffic has been completely halted to and from Gare du Nord,” Eurostar said.

Passengers could exchange their ticket for free to travel at another date or time in the same class, subject to availability, the train company said.

“Eurostar sincerely apologises for the disruption and understands the inconvenience this may cause,” the company said.

Queues were beginning to form by 8:30 GMT at St Pancras train station in London as passengers tried to work out their next steps.

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.

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 will then work out how to get to Paris from there!”

Additional reporting by Tom Symonds