They were taken on a freight train but complained of being stuck in the undersea tunnel for almost five hours, citing problems with replacement transport. The initial breakdown late on Tuesday affected the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle service at 3.50pm. from Calais to Folkestone and saw hundreds of passengers being herded into a service tunnel. Videos on social media showed holidaymakers walking through the alternative tunnel along the 31-mile rail route between Britain and France, some with suitcases and dogs. Meanwhile, travelers in Calais were told to stay away from the terminal until 6am on Wednesday, with pictures showing gridlock at the bus terminal late on Tuesday afternoon. A spokesman for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: “A train has broken down in the tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate passenger coach through the service tunnel to return to Folkestone Terminal. “We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.” The spokesman added: “Due to the earlier train breakdown, you are advised not to travel to the terminal tonight. “Please arrive after 6am tomorrow.” The Eurotunnel site in Folkestone, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA File) Michael Harrison, from Cranbrook, Kent, one of those on the evacuated train, told the PA news agency: “We went to the crossing at 3.50pm, about 10 minutes the lights went out and the train stopped. “They told us they had to investigate a problem with the wheels. “It took them about an hour and a half to investigate and apparently they found nothing. “They kicked things off and on for another five minutes. “It happened again so we waited another two hours to decide they couldn’t see a problem but they had to evacuate the train to another train. “After further waiting, we left the train through the emergency connecting tunnel to the service tunnel. “We then walked about 10 minutes on a train ahead of the stricken train. “This was a coach carriage where we were taken to Folkestone. “This train then stopped as it could not get traction, probably because it was long and had no weight on it. “There were gasps of disbelief when this was announced. “At last we reached Folkestone six hours after boarding.” Another passenger who was evacuated, but did not want to be named, told PA that “a lot of people are freaking out because they were down in the service tunnel, it’s a bit of a strange place”. He added: “We were stuck down there for at least five hours. “If I have one complaint it’s that they knew several hundred people were arriving at Folkestone who hadn’t eaten for five, six or more hours and there was absolutely nothing for us here. “Just huge queues for Burger King.” Journalist Bruce Atkinson, who experienced the delays in Calais, tweeted: “Sitting in the boarding queue at Calais with no idea how long we will be waiting. I’ve been here 4 hours so far.” Jonel Schwarz added on Twitter: “We’ve been trapped for over 4 hours. If they had given us information earlier, we would never have walked into the trap in the first place.” Kate Scott, 43, from Surrey who was traveling with her husband and two children from a family holiday in France, told PA: “We are finally on the road now after almost eight hours from Calais to Folkestone when we should to be 35 minutes. . “The heat sensor alarm went off and they had to do a full train inspection, then we started again and five or ten minutes later we stopped again and they did the same thing again. “Three or four hours after leaving Calais they said ‘look, we’re not going anywhere, we have to evacuate’, so they put us on another train. It was hot, there was no air conditioning, they gave water, but we didn’t really know what was going on. “We were told to get out of our cars and get to the front of the train, where we waited for almost an hour without any information in the boiling heat. People were a bit agitated. “Eventually they opened the doors and we had to walk onto the train, into the service tunnel where we were held for another 40 minutes for the evacuation train.” Sarah Fellows, 37, from Birmingham, would have taken 18 hours to get home from a family holiday in France after the “absolute carnage” of the evacuation. He told PA: “The service tunnel was terrifying. “It was like a disaster movie. “You were just walking in the abyss not knowing what was going on. We all had to stay under the sea in this long queue. “Fire and rescue were there. “There was a woman crying in the tunnel, another woman having a panic attack traveling alone. “They were expecting really old people to walk for a mile in the middle of a tunnel under the sea. “It was absolute carnage when we got to Folkestone as they hadn’t really prepared for our arrival. “It was just not organized how to evacuate this train. “I was panicked at one point and the Border Force told us the tunnel had been evacuated one other time in the last 17 years, not recently.”
