Alert over man in Channel Tunnel

The man was found inside the terminal at Folkestone

A man was spotted on the tracks inside the Channel Tunnel, prompting a police search and a delay of three hours to passengers and freight.

Power had to be turned off after the man was seen running in the track area of the terminal at Folkestone at 0355 GMT on Saturday.

Police officers and Eurotunnel staff later found the man who had boarded a train near the terminal entrance.

A man was arrested by police for trespassing on the track.

During the time of the search we were unable to run the services for either the freight or the passenger side John Keefe, Eurotunnel

Lorries heading for the tunnel were using the M20 to park as Operation Stack was put in place.

Eurotunnel said there was a three-hour delay on the freight service with delays of between two and three hours for the passenger shuttle.

John Keefe from Eurotunnel said: "This morning an unidentified person was detected at the terminal at Folkestone.

"In accordance with procedures once that happens the police come in and carry out a search and in order to do that in all safety we have to cut the power to the terminal.

'Apologise for delays'

"It took them some time to find where the person was and then also to search to make sure there were not any more people.

"At 0800 GMT we went back live again and we have been running since then.

"Currently we are trying to get as much capacity into the system as we can to get our customers through.

"We apologise for the delays and are moving as fast as we can to resolve the problem."

Traffic problems on Saturday were being made worse because of berthing difficulties at Calais which means more lorries are using the Channel Tunnel.

Operation Stack had been put in place overnight because of the problems at the French port and was reactivated at 0700 GMT because of the alert at the tunnel.