A train breaks down in the Eurotunnel between Great Britain and France. Around 400 passengers have to change trains in the longest underwater tunnel in the world. One passenger describes the experience as "terrifying," reporting tears and a panic attack.
A train breakdown has left hundreds of passengers stranded for hours in the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain. After the alarm went off on board a shuttle train in the Eurotunnel, the passengers had to be taken through a maintenance tunnel to another car train on Tuesday evening, according to a spokesman for the operating company Getlink.
The shuttle was "stopped in a controlled manner" and inspected, he added. The approximately 400 passengers were taken to another train "for safety's sake". Photos and videos on online networks showed passengers walking through the tunnel with their belongings.
"The maintenance tunnel was scary. It was like something out of a disaster movie," Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, told the PA news agency. One woman cried, another suffered a panic attack.
The travelers arrived in England several hours late. In the morning, shuttle traffic through the tunnel was back to normal. Almost 38 kilometers of the Channel Tunnel, which connects Calais, France, with Folkestone, UK, runs under the English Channel.
The Eurotunnel is the world's longest underwater tunnel. Of the 50 kilometers, 37 kilometers run completely under the English Channel between France and Great Britain.
