Channel Tunnel closed after freight blaze

A fire on a freight train forced the closure of the undersea Channel Tunnel on Thursday, halting all rail traffic, including passenger services, between Britain and continental Europe, the tunnel operator said.

No one died in the blaze, which reportedly started on a lorry aboard the shuttle mid-afternoon, but six people fell ill after inhaling fumes and needed hospital treatment in Calais.

More than four hours after it started, about 100 firemen from Britain and France were still trying to put out the flames, although the Eurostar rail operator said the fire had been brought under control.

The 32 people travelling on the freight shuttle were led to safety through a service tunnel within minutes of the alarm being raised, and the train was halted some 11-km (7 miles) from the French mouth of the tunnel.

"There are no deaths. The truck drivers ... were evacuated through the service tunnel," French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said.

About 40,000 people a day use Eurostar to travel between Britain and the continent, according to Eurostar, and thousands of passengers were left stranded as a result of the fire, with eight trains forced to return to station.

Eurostar said it hoped that passenger services could resume on Friday, but French security officials said it was too early to say what damage might have been done to the tunnel.

"There was an explosion and then flames and a lot of smoke," said French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.

The Channel Tunnel is 51-km long, including a 38-km stretch that runs some 40 metres under the sea – the longest such undersea subway in the world.

Officials originally said the fire started on a lorry carrying phenol, a toxic, flammable product used in various industries, but French media later reported that this truck was removed before it was engulfed by the flames.

There have been two previous blazes in the Franco-British tunnel since it was inaugurated in 1994.

In November 1996, a truck caught fire causing one of the two main tunnels to be closed for a month and freight traffic to be halted for 7 months. In August 2006, there was another blaze on a truck, but there was no serious damage done.

Eurostar services are handled by France's SNCF railway and Belgium's SNCB on their respective territories while the British arm is owned by London & Continental Railways (LCR).

The British side is managed by a consortium including bus and train operator National Express, SNCF, SNCB and British Airways. (Reporting by Paris and London bureau; editing by Matthew Jones)