Passengers stranded for five hours on Eurostar train over e-cig

Commuters were left stranded on a Eurostar train for five hours after an e-cigarette sparked a fire alert.

Alarms were activated after a passenger used the device in an onboard toilet.

The incident occurred on a London to Paris train, which left the English capital at 3.30pm on Monday.


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Speaking to the Evening Standard, Rebecca Stevens, who was on the service, said: "I was getting something from the food cart and heard through the radio they thought there was a fire on board.

"They switched off the radios because they didn't want people to hear, and it pulled off the track and onto a side track.

"Someone had been smoking an e-cigarette so they wanted to turn the alarm off.

"We lost the main power, so we lost electricity, air conditioning, and there was no phone signal so we couldn't make calls or email."

Rebecca added that babies and children on board were screaming, and another passenger said there were only mini Twixes to eat.

They finally arrived in Paris just after midnight.

The incident occurred just a day after other Eurostar passengers endured an eight-hour delay after a fire broke out on board on Sunday.

The train was travelling from London to Paris when it came to a stop south of the town of Arras in northern France.

Firefighters put out the blaze with no injuries, but the power to the train was cut.

Passengers vented their frustration on Twitter:

A diesel train eventually arrived to take passengers to Arras before another Eurostar train took them on to Paris.

According to France24, passengers finally disembarked in the French capital at 4.30 am local time on Monday morning, nearly eight hours after the scheduled arrival time of 8.47 pm on Sunday.

A spokesman told the Mirror: "We apologise for what we appreciate was a very difficult situation overnight, which was caused by an electrical fault impacting the power to the train.

"Our staff on board worked hard to keep passengers updated while the train was moved to a station to change trains, and all of those affected will be directly contacted with details on the compensation available to them."