Eurostar cancellations – latest: All Paris trains suspended today after WW2 bomb found near Gare du Nord station

Fabien Villedieu, leader of the SUD rail union shared a picture of the unexploded bomb on social media, which he said weighed 300kg.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

Eurostar says all its 32 trains between London and Paris are cancelled on Friday, leaving an estimated 25,000 passengers out of position.

The closure has happened on the busiest day of the week for Eurostar – and the key day for leisure travellers heading for a weekend away in Paris.

These are the options as at 1.15pm on Friday.

Eurostar has confirmed passengers affected by the rail cancellations can claim refunds for their ticket, if they have not changed their journey to a different date of travel.

Here are the options listed by Eurostar on its website:

• Exchange the booking for free to travel in the same class at a different time or date.
• Cancel the booking and claim an e-voucher, which you will have 12 months after the date of the disrupted journey to redeem.
• Cancel your booking and claim a refund. You will received a refund for the value of your ticket within 28 days – but it will not cover the cost of booking or exchange fees.

Eurostar says passengers have three months from the original travel date to claim their preferred option.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports live from London St. Pancras:

SNCF (French Railways) says domestic services will start to resume this afternoon on the line north from Paris Gare du Nord.

It is telling passengers: “Traffic will not resume until mid-afternoon, after formal authorisation from the authorities, but will remain disrupted until the end of the day.”

The operator adds: “We invite you to postpone your trip.”

Eurostar, which links London with Paris through the Channel Tunnel, cancelled its entire schedule at about 9am on Friday, UK time.

A spokesperson said: “Tomorrow, we expect normal traffic between Paris and Brussels, and between Paris and London.Eurostar will run two extra trains tomorrow: one leaving London to Paris in the morning, one leaving Paris to London in the afternoon.”

Simon Calder reports live from London St. Pancras:

Lots of room is available on DFDS, Irish Ferries and P&O Ferries sailings from Dover to Calais (and DFDS to Dunkirk) over the weekend.

The same applies for Shuttles from Folkestone to Calais.

The Independent has made multiple attempts to see what seats are available on trains running from London to Lille, from where other surface options – including trains to Marne la Vallée/Disneyland Paris, east of the capital.

But neither the Eurostar app nor the website allows bookings to be made. The app tells customers: “Sorry, something went wrong. Go to the homepage.”

The website simply features an endlessly revolving Eurostar logo. So at present it is impossible to recommend any solutions involving Eurostar.

The best solution is DFDS from Newhaven to Dieppe, because onward trains via Rouen to Paris serve St-Lazare station in the French capital, which is unaffected by the closure.

P&O Ferries normally carries foot passengers on only a few sailings each day from Dover to Calais. But because of the Eurostar shutdown, it is making more evening sailings available.

You can reach Dover from London easily on the High Speed 1 line from St Pancras to Dover Priory. The ferry fare is £37.25. Foot passenger check-in closes 90 minutes before departure.

From Dunkirk or Calais on the other side of the Channel, the best plan is to head for Lille and try to get a train to Marne la Vallée/Disneyland Paris – or, failing that, a coach.

Fully booked from London to Paris, though FlixBus is showing a weird connection via Antwerp taking over 17 hours.

Many passengers have chosen to fly from a different UK city – including Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds – to Paris. All such flights for Friday are fully booked.

The same applies to other French cities – though there are seats on easyJet from London Gatwick to Strasbourg on Friday evening, with an early train from the Alsatian city to Paris Est arriving before 9am on Saturday.

“An unexploded bomb from the Second World War was discovered near the tracks,” French national railway company TER said.

The bomb was discovered in the middle of the tracks near Paris sat around 4am, prompting disruption which is affecting both local metros and national and international trains.

Barney Davis and Simon Calder with the full report:

A Parisian has been left feeling “frustrated” after his trip to see his partner in London was thwarted by the travel chaos.

Lee Bailey, 48, who has an apartment in Paris, was booked on a Eurostar train at around 7.09am but then had to rebook on to a later train at 4.30pm – which was then also cancelled.

He had been hoping to travel to London to spend the weekend with his partner who lives there.

The communications professional told the PA news agency: “There were several hundred people waiting to go through the ticket scanners and passport control who were being held back and people were calm, but it was obviously frustrating.

“I completely understand the need to address the risk, but the process for rebooking has become complicated, and at two points the Eurostar site has asked me to pay to rebook on later trains.”

Around 200 people with front doors opening onto the operation area have been evacuated, local authorities have said.

“A mine clearance operation is underway after the discovery of a Second World War shell on the railway tracks in Saint-Denis,” the state services X account for Seine-Saint-Denis says.

“A 500-meter security perimeter has been established around the machine. In preparation for the operation, the police headquarters has already evacuated 200 people whose house doors provide direct access to the operation area.

“Other people located within the security perimeter, in Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, are asked to confine themselves to their homes for the duration of the operation.”

Ella Brown and Charlie Spath had planned on spending the weekend in Paris but have now been forced to try and rebook their train.

Ella, 21, travelled from Orange County, California to visit her friend Charlie, also 21, on his year abroad at City University.

They planned to spend their weekend in France, but are now trying to rebook their Eurostar for tomorrow night.

“It will all work out, but it’s a bummer,” Ms Brown said. “I haven’t been to Europe before.”

They looked at flights “but it’s almost more of a pain,” she said.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports from St Pancras.

One train company that has stepped up to help passengers caught up by the Eurostar shutdown is LNER – which runs on the East Coast main line linking London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland.

The state-run rail firm is offering to help out people who are booked on its trains as part of a trip to or from Paris.

It says: “If you’ve been affected by today’s issues in Paris, you can use your existing LNER ticket on an alternative service today or, if you have deferred travel to or from Paris, travel with us on the same day of your new trip.”