Paris — Eurostar trains to and from London and different trains heading northward from Paris had been dropped at a halt Friday following the invention of an unexploded bomb relationship again to World Conflict II close to tracks serving the French capital’s busy Gare du Nord station. The nation’s nationwide prepare operator, SNCF, mentioned in an announcement that visitors was stopped on the request of police at France’s busiest rail station. Authorities had been working to disable the decades-old system.
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot mentioned visitors could be ”strongly disrupted” all through the day with solely restricted service resuming within the afternoon, and he urged vacationers to postpone their journeys.
The bomb was found round 4 a.m. by employees doing earth-moving work close to the tracks within the Seine-Saint-Denis area.
Passengers stand below an info display displaying that visitors was stopped on the Gare du Nord station in Paris on March 7, 2025, following the invention of a World Conflict II bomb.
GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP through Getty Photos
Minesweepers had been despatched to the location and their operation was nonetheless occurring.
Stranded vacationers converged on the station because it opened Friday.
The Gare du Nord is a significant European transit hub, serving worldwide locations north of France such because the EU capital, Brussels, and the Netherlands, in addition to the primary Paris airport and lots of regional locations.
Bombs left over from World Wars I and II are usually found round France and different European international locations, however hardly ever in such a people-packed location.
The Gare du Nord prepare station in Paris is seen in January 2023.
Michel Euler / AP
Tabarot, talking on broadcaster Sud Radio, mentioned native residents and folks close to the prepare stations ought to have “no concern” of a threat of explosion, as he burdened the procedures in place for defusing and eradicating such bombs.
Eurostar, which runs passenger trains by means of the Channel Tunnel between Britain and the continent, canceled all providers between London and Paris on Friday morning and suggested passengers to select one other day to journey.
Friday is likely one of the busiest days of the week at Eurostar’s London hub, St. Pancras Station, as 1000’s of individuals go away and arrive for weekend breaks.
Trains between London and Eurostar’s different main vacation spot, Brussels, had been unaffected.