Trains back to normal at Paris Gare du Nord after World War II bomb defused
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Passengers waiting at Gare du Nord train station in Paris, following the discovery of an unexploded bomb on March 7.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS - Rail services resumed on March 8 at Gare du Nord station in Paris, one of the busiest rail hubs in Europe, after all trains were cancelled for much of the previous day following the discovery of a World War II bomb.
Gare du Nord hosts Eurostar services to London and into continental Europe via Belgium, high-speed trains to northern France, as well as a plethora of regional and suburban services.
Some 500 trains and 600,000 people were affected on March 7 “with the entire northern part of the country paralysed”, said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, after one of the toughest days in years on the French rail network in years.
“We are pleased and relieved that it is over,” he said on March 7, adding the bomb weighed 500kg with 200kg of explosives packed inside.
Defusing operations were completed by the afternoon, allowing travel to resume.
Rail services resumed progressively from 5pm GMT on March 7 and were back to normal on March 8.
“Traffic has resumed normally, everything is open, everything is running normally,” a spokesperson for French rail operator SNCF told AFP on March 8.
High-speed trains to London and Brussels have resumed “like a normal Saturday”, said Eurostar which has laid on extra trains for passengers who could not travel on March 7.
Some 300 police were mobilised to secure the site after the bomb was unearthed close to the tracks during engineering works overnight on March 6 to 7.
Nearby residents were evacuated and part of the Paris ring road temporarily closed.
It was not immediately clear when the bomb had been dropped, but experts quoted by French media noted that Allied forces had targeted railway infrastructure and factories close to tracks during the German occupation of France in World War II. AFP