Eurostar trains expected to resume on Saturday after unexploded WWII bomb defused near Paris Gare du Nord station
Eurostar trains cancelled and Paris metro disrupted after unexploded bomb discovered
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Eurostar trains between London and Paris are expected to resume on Saturday after an unexploded WWII bomb near Paris’s Gare du Nord station was defused by French authorities.
The bomb was discovered in the middle of the tracks near Paris at around 4am, prompting mass disruption for local metros as well as national and international trains.
It was defused on Friday afternoon, around 12 hours after it was first discovered – but not before all Eurostar trains between London and Paris had been cancelled, leaving holidaymakers stranded in London St Pancras and Paris’ Gare du Nord.
A 500m perimeter was set up around the bomb, and buildings were evacuated near the site. Six schools and a nursing home were put under lockdown as the bomb disposal unit dealt with the unexploded ordnance.
Sharing a picture of the bombsite, police chief Laurent Nuñez said on X (Twitter): “Congratulations to all! The shell dating from the Second World War has been neutralised. I thank all the police, emergency services and specialized agents involved in this operation and especially the director of the LCPP. The security perimeters will be lifted.”
Eurostar had earlier said in a statement: “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. As a result, all Eurostar trains are cancelled to and from Paris today.”
Hundreds of travellers were packed into the train stations, hoping for good news or trying to arrange alternate travel plans.
Joe and Laura Booth, from Hull, had failed in their second attempt to reach Paris. They were originally meant to fly but their airline, KLM, wrongly denied them boarding by falsely claiming Laura’s passport had expired. They decided to get the Eurostar for their second attempt for a birthday getaway, a decision which proved unfortunate.
“We are currently in the first class lounge hoping and praying lines reopen this morning and we get there around 4pm French time,” Mr Booth told The Independent before it was announced that all trains had been cancelled.
“If the 12:31 is cancelled, then I think unfortunately it’s back home again.”
Customers who had their trains cancelled are eligible for refunds, Eurostar confirmed on Friday afternoon.
Friday is typically an extremely busy day for Eurostar, and trains later in the day are heavily booked. Gare du Nord is Europe’s busiest rail station and serves 214 million passengers a year, according to Eurostar.
It isn’t uncommon for bombs left over from the world wars to be discovered in France – but to find them in such a people-packed location is rare.
However, train stations were often a target of the Allied forces as they sought to disrupt Germany’s war effort.
French transport minister Philippe Tabarot told broadcaster Sud Radio earlier on Friday that local residents should have “no fear” of a risk of explosion, stressing the procedures in place for defusing and removing such bombs.
Fabien Villedieu, leader of the SUD rail union shared a picture of the unexploded bomb on social media, which he said weighed 300kg.
Mr Tabarot warned there would be disruption throughout the day at Gare Du Nord. “The ideal would be to be able to restore traffic in a slightly degraded manner from the afternoon,” he is reported to have told Sud Radio.
Passenger rights are much weaker in rail travel than they are in air travel, meaning they may not be guaranteed alternative transport as soon as possible, plus meals and hotels as they wait.
