They wanted to get to the island as quickly as possible – but for hundreds of drivers crossing the canal on Tuesday became a five-hour evacuation drama that reminded those affected of a “disaster film”.

Thousands of people returning from vacation were stranded in Calais because of a train breakdown and shook their heads at the operating company's lack of precautions and information policy.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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The train at 3:50 p.m. – when the car trains run every twenty minutes at peak times – began its journey normally, according to reports from those affected, but after ten minutes the lights went out and it stopped in the tunnel.

One of the victims, Michael Harrison of Cranbrook in Kent, said the victims had been told that a "problem with the wheels" needed to be investigated.

After an hour and a half, during which engineers had been searching in vain for the cause of the alarm, the car train started moving only to stop again a few minutes later.

Following a second unsuccessful inspection, the train passengers were guided through a connecting corridor into the parallel "service tunnel".

After a ten-minute walk through the heat of the tunnel, they were put on a replacement train

which normally transported buses through the tunnel.

According to Harrison, this train also had trouble getting started, which caused "groans of disbelief" among those involved.

First evacuation after 13 years

Another sufferer, Sarah Fellows from Birmingham, felt "like in a disaster movie".

The service tunnel was "terrible".

"You ran into the abyss without knowing what was going to happen - we all had to stay under water in this huge line." Elderly people would also have had to walk more than a kilometer through the tunnel.

One woman suffered from a panic attack, another cried.

Six hours after checking in, the group finally reached the terminal in Folkstone, UK, where there was "complete confusion".

The first evacuation after 13 years caused the handling on the French side to sink into chaos.

Instead of informing and turning travelers away at the entrance, staff diverted them to an alternative car park on the Calais site, where many hundreds of cars quickly became backed up and wedged in long lines.

Although Eurotunnel staff were equipped with radios, they were unable to tell travelers when trains would be running again.

Queues of cars until midnight

Around 10 p.m. – many had been waiting for six hours – it was said that there would be no more trains until the next morning.

As a result, numerous drivers attempted to leave the site to catch another night ferry or to seek a hastily booked hotel room, leading to chaotic scenes on the site.

Travelers wishing to transfer their tickets to the next day were told they would have to request this at check-in, which was not within walking distance.

This led to new queues of cars until midnight.

It was not until late in the evening that the official Eurotunnel portal announced that the service had been temporarily suspended.

"They let us all fall into the trap with our eyes wide open," said a Romanian woman who works in the British National Health Service and had visited her sister in Brussels.

After waiting five hours in the car park, she drove two hours back to the Belgian capital to spend the night and try again on Wednesday.

50 meters below the seabed

A spokesman for the French company "Eurotunnel Le Shuttle" only announced on Tuesday evening that "a train got stuck in the tunnel" and that they apologize for the "inconvenience".

The company is known for its buttoned-up information policy.

According to information from the staff, the traffic jams at the beginning of the holiday had technical causes that were not communicated.

Instead, in July, French authorities blamed the waiting times on stricter passport controls after leaving the EU, while British tabloids speculated about punishment because of Brexit.

The car trains, which are almost 800 meters long, have been in use since the tunnel was commissioned in 1994.

New trains are currently being built.

Technical problems have arisen several times.

In addition, fires have broken out three times in the 50.45-kilometer tunnel in the past few decades.

The three channels - two for trains, one for service - are located an average of 50 meters below the seabed;

at the deepest point it is 75 meters.

In addition to the car trains, the “Eurostar” passenger train runs there, which mainly connects London with Brussels and Paris and is operated by another company.

On a good day, 60,000 people move through the tunnel, along with 4,600 trucks, 140 buses, and 7,300 cars.