Eurostar delays between Paris and London St Pancras as power cut sparks travel chaos
EUROSTAR has warned passengers travelling to and from Paris to expect severe disruption after a power cut sparked massive delays today.
Staff initially reported a power cable had exploded and resulted in a fire at the Gare du Nord rail station, causing the travel chaos.
But Eurostar has since denied this, insisting instead the delays were the result of a power cable "going down".
Eurostar warned passengers to travel only if "absolutely necessary", with a number of cross-channel services cancelled altogether.
Images from the station showed smoke falling from above onto the end of a platform and large queues of stranded passengers beginning to form.
Eurostar team leader at Gare du Nord Lawrence Moore-Evans said in a now-deleted tweet: "At 10:45am, the catenary of track 6 exploded and a fire started at the end of the platform.
"For safety reasons, we have cut power in the region and no Eurostar train will be able to arrive or leave Paris Gare du Nord for an indefinite period."
A total of four Friday services between Paris and London were cancelled.
'NO HELP AT ALL'
The week has also seen widespread disruption on the transport network around London.
Extreme heat and thunderstorms saw flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton cancelled, while northbound trains from London's St Pancras were cancelled after overline power cables began to sag.
"Exchange your ticket for free, for a later date, subject to availability.
"If you choose to travel, please proceed to ticket gates at the time indicated on your ticket as normal.
"If you arrive at your destination more than 60 minutes late, you can claim compensation.
"Please wait 24 hours then go to .
"We apologise for the inconvenience and we thank you for your patience."
Heathrow was the worst-hit airport, with British Airways cancelling at least 30 flights and stranded passengers blasting the airline.
One tweeted: "We have been stranded at Heathrow for 16 hours. British Airways have been absolutely appalling.
"No help whatsoever. We sat on the plane for 5 hours with very little information."
Another wrote: "NO staff at all available to help stranded passengers from midnight to 4.30am.
"Dreadful service and still no nearer to getting help after cancelled flight. It's chaos at Heathrow T5."
A third said: "My sister with her little kids is stuck in a plane for 10 hours and it never took off.
"They didn't let the passengers out I am sure because they wanted to avoid the crowd.
The UK was hit by a sweltering heatwave this week, with temperatures reaching 38C.
Thursday was the hottest July day on record and the second hottest day ever.
The current record of 38.5C was set in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.
The hottest July day ever was in 2015, when temperatures reached 36.7C, more than a degree less than the 38.1C measured in Cambridge this week.
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