A passenger walks at Gare du Nord station after all traffic was interrupted following the discovery of a World War II bomb in Paris, France, 07 March 2025. Rail services announced that traffic will be heavily disrupted, cancelling all trains to and from Gare du Nord due to the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb near the station's tracks. EPA-EFE/TERESA SUAREZ The disruption is affecting commuter rails and national and international trains, including Eurostar services.
Eurostar planned to cancel all trains to and from Gare du Nord, a company spokesperson told Reuters. Its website advised travellers to reschedule their trips.
The bomb was found 2.5 km (1.55 miles) from Gare du Nord, in the middle of the tracks, one of the network's train lines, the H Line, said in a post on messaging platform X.
It said train traffic would remain disrupted until the de-mining operation was completed.
Paris police said the bomb had been discovered at 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) in Saint-Denis, a northern Parisian suburb, during construction work. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot expected the disruption to continue for at least the rest of the day.
About 220 million passengers pass through the Gare du Nord, Europe's busiest train station, each year, travelling to and from destinations in northern France, and London, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, according to the Paris tourist office.
Clemence Fandard, an interface designer in Paris, said her 6:20 a.m. train to Amsterdam was initially delayed for 45 minutes before being cancelled.
"I had heard reports of these things happening from time to time," Fandard said, adding: "We were unlucky!"
Another traveller, Kasman Ibrahimi, said he had planned to catch a train to Cologne in Germany from Gare du Nord but would now look for an alternative route.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Makini Brice, Antony Paone and Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Rachna Uppal)