(7 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
St. Pancras station, London – 7 March 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustakim Hasnath, Associated Press:
"Right now I’m inside the Eurostar departures lounge at St. Pancras in London, where passengers still don’t quite know what’s in store for them next. There is a train behind me, but it’s destined for Brussels, not Paris. All trains between London and Paris were canceled today after a World War II bomb was discovered near Gare du Nord."
2. Various of exteriors of St. Pancras station
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustakim Hasnath, Associated Press:
People I was speaking to were frustrated, some are booking last minute hotels. Others are stuck extending holidays or even delaying returns home. Eurostar is offering refunds but no extra compensation to their customers."
4. Various of interiors of St. Pancras station, train
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustakim Hasnath, Associated Press:
"The bomb, which is around half a ton, was found overnight near the tracks in Paris. The French authorities had to shut down train services and even closed parts of the Paris ring road to safely defuze it."
6. Wide of Eurostar sign ++4:3++
7. Various of station ++4:3++
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustakim Hasnath, Associated Press:
"Eurostar says trains will gradually resume tomorrow, but tonight many passengers are stranded with no clear next steps.
9. Various of station ++4:3++
STORYLINE:
The disposal of what Paris police called an “excessively dangerous” unexploded World War II bomb caused hours of transportation chaos Friday on rail and road networks in the French capital, including the suspension of high-speed train links with London and Brussels.
Having moved the bomb into a hole, disposal experts managed to unscrew and then destroy its fuse.
But the police operation that made the bomb safe before it was then taken away triggered major disruption for hundreds of thousands of rail travelers and motorists.
The bomb was dug up near train tracks north of Paris, forcing a shutdown of the rail network serving Gare du Nord, France’s busiest station.
A portion of the A1 highway — a major road artery into northern Paris — and sections of the capital’s always-busy beltway were also closed while police disposal officers worked.
Eurostar, the operator of high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel that joins England with the European continent, said that normal traffic would resume Saturday between Paris and Brussels and Paris and London, after Friday’s full day of cancellations.
Hundreds of commuter, regional and high-speed train services between Paris and its suburbs and towns and cities in northern France were also canceled.
At Eurostar’s hub in London, St. Pancras International station, passengers scrambled for alternatives. Fridays are invariably busy with thousands of weekend travelers.
Paris-bound passengers were advised to try taking trains to Lille in northern France, or fly.
Many opted to book last minute hotels or delay their journeys.
Workers laboring overnight on a bridge-replacement project spotted the rust-eaten, dirt-covered bomb before dawn Friday, after it was found by an earth-moving machine at a depth of about two meters (six feet), between train tracks to the north of Gare du Nord, national rail operator SNCF said.
Bomb disposal services arrived within the hour and set up a 200-meter security perimeter, later extended to 500 meters. Pezron, the police lab director, said that the bomb could have exploded had it been struck accidentally with workers’ tools or shaken too vigorously.
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