Eurostar said it canceled all services Saturday because of severe weather in northern France, stranding thousands of passengers on the weekend before Christmas.

The cancellation follows the breakdown of five Eurostar trains Friday night inside the Channel Tunnel, also called the Chunnel, which runs between Britain and France. Eurostar blamed the breakdown on the weather.

"We strongly recommend that travelers whose journeys are not essential change their tickets for travel on a later date or have their tickets refunded," Eurostar said on its Web site. It promised an update by 4 p.m. regarding its Sunday services.

More than 10,000 passengers could be affected by the cancelation, an estimate based on passenger numbers on Eurostar's timetable.

The five trains became stuck in the tunnel because the air inside was much warmer than the air outside the tunnel entrance in France, Eurostar spokeswoman Amelle Mouhaddib told CNN.
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She said she believed it was the first time that air temperatures had caused Eurostar trains to fail.

Eurotunnel, which operates the Channel Tunnel, said it evacuated all 1,364 Eurostar passengers that were stuck after the trains "lost traction."

All passengers had been removed from the tunnel by Saturday afternoon, Mouhaddib said, but one of the five trains remained in the tunnel and was blocking part of it, according to a Eurotunnel spokeswoman who asked not to be named, in line with policy.

The Chunnel is actually two separate tunnels separated by a third and smaller service tunnel, so the train that remained stuck inside did not mean the entire tunnel was blocked, the Eurotunnel spokeswoman said.

The Chunnel is 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) long, 38 kilometers (23 miles) of which are underwater.

The tunnel was open Saturday on a restricted basis, the spokeswoman said. Non-commercial vehicles including cars, motorbikes, and camper vans were still able to travel through.

Freight trucks, too, would be allowed through the tunnel were it not for weather-related restrictions on the French side.

French authorities have told all trucks to get off the highways on the French side of the Channel because the weather conditions are so bad, Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe told CNN. That means no trucks are entering the tunnel from the French side, and trucks can't enter on the English side because they wouldn't be allowed to drive once they reach France.

It has resulted in a backup of freight traffic on either side of the tunnel, Keefe said. No trucks are stuck inside the tunnel.

On the British side, Kent Police early Saturday implemented Operation Stack, which goes into effect any time there is a problem affecting freight traffic in the tunnel. The operation lets police manage the backlog of trucks that builds up whenever the tunnel is closed.

A Kent Police spokesman could not estimate how many trucks were waiting Saturday morning but said Operation Stack allows police to manage as many as 2,300 trucks.

The problems started after 9 p.m. Friday, when the first of the five trains became stuck. The Kent Fire and Rescue Service said it was first called to assist in the tunnel at 9:46 p.m.

The first Eurostar train to fail was helped out of the tunnel by a Eurotunnel locomotive, which took it all the way to London with passengers still on board, the Eurotunnel spokeswoman said.

Passengers on the second and third trains to fail were evacuated via the service tunnel to a Eurotunnel train, which brought them to the exit, she said. One of the failed trains was pulled out of the tunnel but authorities were having difficulty removing the other, she said.

The fourth and fifth trains were running close together when they failed, so Eurotunnel locomotives coupled them and either pushed or pulled them to the English side of the tunnel, the spokeswoman said.

Passengers from the fifth train boarded the one in front, and Eurotunnel locomotives then towed that train to London, she said.

The two trains that were evacuated were carrying 700 and 664 people respectively, Keefe said. The number of passengers on the other trains wasn't known.

The evacuated passengers described how a trip that was supposed to take around two hours lasted more than 14, factoring in the one-hour time difference between London and Paris.

"I left at 6:30 from Paris and we just arrived at 8 o'clock," passenger Robert Ricine told Sky News after arriving at London's St. Pancras station, a Eurostar hub.

He and other passengers complained they were given no food or water and little information during the ordeal.

The poor weather in France also created problems for boats intending to sail across the Channel from England.

The Port of Dover, a major exit point to France, was operating restricted services Saturday because of weather problems in Calais, France, according to the port's Web site.

"The French authorities prohibited traffic from leaving the Port of Calais owing to the treacherous road conditions, which curtailed all services to Calais," the port said. "Tourist traffic is now being permitted to use the port and ships are sailing to Calais."

It was not immediately clear whether freight traffic had resumed between Dover and Calais.

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