Trains canceled at Paris's Gare du Nord after unexploded WWII bomb found

Eurostar trains to and from London and other trains heading northward from Paris were brought to a halt on March 7, following the discovery of an unexploded bomb dating back to World War II near tracks serving the French capital's busy Gare du Nord station, Report informs via LeMonde.fr.

French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said traffic would be "strongly disrupted" throughout the day with only limited service resuming in the afternoon, and urged travelers to postpone their trips. France's national train operator SNCF said in a statement that traffic was stopped at the request of police. "We invite travelers to postpone their trip," it said.

The bomb was discovered around 4 am by workers doing earth-moving work near the tracks in Saint-Denis, 2.5 kilometers north of the station. Minesweepers were sent to the site and their operation was still ongoing. Stranded travelers converged on the station as it opened Friday.

Eurostar, which runs passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel between Britain and the continent, canceled all services between London and Paris on Friday morning and advised passengers to pick another day to travel. Trains between London and Eurostar's other major destination, Brussels, were unaffected.

The Gare du Nord is a major European transit hub, serving international destinations north of France such as the EU capital, Brussels, and the Netherlands, as well as the main Paris airport and many regional destinations. An estimated 700,000 people transit through it each day, according to the SNCF.

Bombs left over from World War I or World War II are regularly discovered around France but it is very rare to find them in such a people-packed location.

Tabarot, speaking on broadcaster Sud Radio, said local residents and people near the train stations should have "no fear" of a risk of explosion, stressing the procedures in place for defusing and removing such bombs.