Eurostar announced it would be canceling all of its high-speed trains between Paris to London and Brussels after an unexploded World War II era bomb was found near the French capital's central Gare du Nord station. "All Eurostar trains are cancelled to and from Paris today," the rail operator said. Passengers travelling with the Eurostar from London were advised to take the train to Lille in northwest France or fly to Paris. French regional trains were also disrupted at the busy Gare du Nord station, which typically sees 700,000 travelers per day journeying within France, to Paris' main airport and international destinations including London, Brussels and cities in the Netherlands. France's national train operator SNCF said in a statement that traffic would be stopped at the Gare du Nord until mid-morning at the request of police. "We invite travelers to postpone their trip," it said. Earlier, French Transport Minister Phillipe Tabarot warned traffic would be "strongly disrupted" throughout the day after the ordnance was discovered by workers doing earth-moving work nearby. Local media reported the bomb was found "in the middle of the tracks" in the nearby area of Saint-Denis, a Parisian suburb. Bomb disposal experts have been sent to the site. Bombs left over from the two world wars 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. — Euronews
