London, Europe Brief News – Dozens of people were forced to walk through Channel Tunnel after they were left stranded for hours inside the Channel as a train breaks down.
Footage emerged showing Eurotunnel Le Shuttle passengers walkingthrough the Channel, while others being evacuated through an emergency service tunnel after having to abandon their vehicles.
A Eurotunnel spokesman said services were now back to normal.
Le Shuttle said Tuesday night’s incident began when the train’s alarms went off and this needed to be investigated.
A spokesman said such incidents were unusual but not exceptional – far more common on trains carrying lorries than those with private cars.
“The Shuttle was brought to a controlled stop and inspected. As a precautionary measure, for their safety and comfort, we transferred the passengers on board to another shuttle, via the service tunnel (which is there for exactly that purpose),” the spokesman said.
“We brought them to the passenger terminal building, where food and drinks were available, and then slowly brought out the original shuttle and reunited them with their vehicles.”
Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, told the PA news agency she found the service tunnel “terrifying”.
She added: “It was like a disaster movie. You were just walking into the abyss not knowing what was happening. We all had to stay under the sea in this big queue.
“There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic attack who was travelling alone.”
Another passenger, who did not want to be named, said: “Several people were freaking out about being down in the service tunnel, it’s a bit of a weird place… We were stuck down there for at least five hours.”
All those on board the train were transferred at 20:22 BST (19:22 GMT) “in line with safety procedures and as a comfort measure”, Le Shuttle said.
