Thousands stranded by Channel Tunnel fire

[proud_ionian]

source:CNN

Thousands of passengers and truckers are stranded in France and England after a fire broke out in the undersea Channel Tunnel linking the two countries.

French police said six suffered smoke inhalation. and 26 others were taken care of by the Red Cross but not hospitalized.

People inside the 50-kilometer (30-mile) tunnel, known as the Chunnel, were evacuated through a service tunnel that runs between the two train-carrying tunnels, Eurotunnel officials said.

Passenger and freight trains on the key route linking Britain to mainland Europe have been canceled until Friday at the earliest.

In Paris, about 1,000 people were reported to have had travel plans disrupted.

The tunnel closure will affect thousands of travelers, Simon Montague, a spokesman for Eurostar said.

"Probably at the order of 2,000 who were actually in transit, and several more thousands who would've been hoping to travel with us tonight," he said. "Obviously our highest priority tonight is to help those travelers who have not been able to complete their journeys."

Police in Kent, England, said the fire broke out 11 kilometers from the French entrance to the tunnel at about 3.55 p.m. French time (1355 GMT).

The fire continued to burn nearly four hours later, according to Georges Bos, the prefecture of France's Pas de Calais region. He told BFM-TV that six people suffered from smoke inhalation.

A spokesman for French police in Arras added the fire is thought to have begun on a lorry which overturned.

Eurotunnel said 32 people were aboard the shuttle train transporting trucks when the fire broke out.

No passenger trains were going through the tunnel at the time of the fire, they said.

The Channel Tunnel system has two tunnels running trains and the third service tunnel between them.

Eurotunnel runs the tunnel system and freight train services. Eurostar operates the passenger trains that use the tunnel.

A spokeswoman for Eurostar said none of the company's trains was in the tunnel at the time of the incident.

She said: "We have got services on both sides of the tunnel and they have been stopped. They are at various stations on either side of the tunnel. We are looking at what to do with them."

Geoff Dossetter, external affairs director with the UK's Freight Transport Association, says about 60 percent of UK exports to the European Union go through the tunnel.

The $15 billion undersea tunnel opened in 1994 and it now takes just over two hours for the passenger train trip from London to Paris. There are also passenger services to Brussels, Belgium.

A massive fire broke out inside the tunnel in November 1996, causing structural damage but no serious injuries. A truck on a Eurotunnel lorry shuttle caught fire before the train entered the tunnel, and the fire spread to nearby cars