Passengers on a France-England train were stuck in the Channel Tunnel for several hours before being transferred to another train through a service tunnel, CNN reported.
“The train has broken down in the tunnel and we are transferring customers onto another passenger train through the service tunnel to return to our Folkestone terminal,” Eurotunnel tweeted on Tuesday evening. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
The Eurotunnel Shuttle is a rail passenger and freight service through the tunnel between England and France.
The accident occurred on a train traveling from Calais (France) to Folkestone (England) at 15:50 (local time), in which there were hundreds of people, as well as several dogs, according to the news agency PA Media.
“We boarded the train at 3.50pm and after about 10 minutes the lights went out and the train stopped. We were told they needed to investigate the tire issue,” said passenger Michael Harrison.
“It took them about an hour and a half to investigate and obviously they didn’t find anything. They dropped everything and started another five minutes,” Harrison added. “It happened again, after which we waited a few more hours to decide that they couldn’t find the problem, but we had to evacuate the train and get on another.”
Evacuation on foot through the service tunnel
Passengers were then evacuated through the emergency tunnel to the service tunnel, walking for about 10 minutes until they reached another train, Harrison told PA.
Passengers were left stranded in the Eurotunnel after a train broke down inside.
Video posted on social media showed travelers walking through the central service tunnel after their train broke down en route to France on Tuesday night.https://t.co/Jo9nzHSzHq pic.twitter.com/GCgC8ADJoo
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 23, 2022
The passengers arrived in the UK six hours after boarding, he added.
The Eurotunnel shuttle journey between Folkestone and Calais usually takes 35 minutes.
A second passenger told PA that “a few people were scared in the service tunnel, it’s a bit of a strange place. We were stuck there for at least five hours.”
Another passenger, Kate Scott, said the temperature in the tunnel was a problem.
“It was hot, there was no air conditioning, they gave us water, but we didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
Sarah Fellows, 37, told the PA that “the service tunnel was horrible”.
“It was like a disaster movie. You just walked into the abyss, not knowing what was going on. We all had to stand in a long line underwater,” she said.
“There was a woman in the tunnel who was crying, another woman had a panic attack and was traveling alone,” Fellows added.
Source: Hot News RO
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