Coin Press - Thousands stranded as massive WWII bomb blocks Paris train station

On Friday morning all traffic to the Gare du Nord train station -- France's busiest railway terminus serving international trains to London and mainland Europe, high-speed and local connections -- was halted as police worked to disable the device.

Hours later, France's transport minister said services from Gare du Nord, which is located in the north of the French capital, would gradually resume from 1700 GMT Friday.

The defusing operations were "finally over" and went well, Philippe Tabarot said, adding that the 500-kilogramme bomb "contained 200 kilogrammes of explosives".

All Eurostar trains heading to and from Paris, including the popular service to and from London through the Channel Tunnel, were cancelled for the rest of Friday.

The usually packed RER B suburban train was also halted at Gare du Nord, cutting the main public transport route to Charles de Gaulle airport.

In London, crowds gathered at St Pancras railway station. Many travellers looked stressed as they made calls and searched for alternative options.

Friday was a rude start to Michelle Abeyie's 40th birthday, which she had planned to celebrate with her friends on her first ever trip to the French capital.

"I'm really upset, disappointed, frustrated, stressed," Abeyie told AFP.

"We would've gone to the Louvre and the Moulin Rouge tonight," Abeyie said, wiping away a few tears.

In Paris however, Owen Pritchard, a tourist seeking to return to London, was philosophical.

"I don't want to get on a train that runs over any unexploded World War II ordnance," he said.

"I would rather they clear that, and then make sure it's safe to travel."

- 'Network was heavily bombed' -

The unexploded bomb was found "near the tracks" about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the station overnight during maintenance work carried out in the northern Paris suburb of Saint Denis, the national SNCF rail company said.

The ordnance dating back to World War II was discovered about 200 meters north of the Paris ring road.

Around 200 nearby residents were evacuated by police.

The prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis requested that people living less than 500 metres (yards) from the site stay indoors.

Part of the ring road and the A1 motorway were closed, with officials reporting traffic jams extending 200 kilometres outside Paris.

Unexploded ordnance is still found across Europe, particularly in Germany where the ground remains riddled with it, 80 years after World War II.

But Matthieu Chabanel, head of rail infrastructure management unit SNCF Reseau, said that finding a bomb of such size was "really quite exceptional.

"We know that during World War II, the rail network was heavily bombed, especially here north of Paris where there were also many factories," he told reporters.

Sud-Rail union official Fabien Villedieu posted a picture of the ordnance covered in dirt.

It was not immediately clear when and by whom the bomb was dropped during World War II and if it dated to before or after the 1940 occupation of Paris by Nazi Germany.

- 'I was shocked' -

Many passengers could not mask their irritation at the sudden change of plans.

"I've been waiting since 6:00 am for an RER to Goussainville," said 55-year-old Corinne Schiavenato, referring to a town north of Paris.

"I tried to take a replacement bus but it's impossible, too many passengers, they're packed. I'm self-employed, I have a client who has been waiting for me since 7:00 am."

Others took the disruptions in stride.

"It's funny, I've just come back from Lorient where unexploded shells are discovered all the time," said Chloe Ternand, referring to a town in western France.

Eurostar said it expected services between Paris and London, as well as between Paris and Brussels, to return to normal on Saturday. Two extra departures would be added to the London route, it added.

Its services from London to Brussels and London to Amsterdam, which do not go via Paris, were running normally.

In 2019, the discovery of a wartime bomb interrupted traffic between the Saint-Lazare station and the western suburbs of Paris.

Gare du Nord is one of the busiest train stations in Europe, carrying more than 226 million passengers in 2023, according to SNCF.

L.Peeters--CPN