A bomb alert temporarily disrupted train services at Calais-Fréthun station in northern France on Thursday morning, affecting both domestic and international rail travel, Reuters reported. International high-speed rail operator Eurostar said some services between London and Paris had been affected by the disruption, as trains travelling on the route pass through Calais-Fréthun, and the incident caused delays to services to and from London, the company said.

Source: Reuters, via Mix 92.9

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture said on X at about 9.40am local time that a bomb alert was under way at the station and that checks — a 'levée de doute', the clearing of doubt — were being carried out, warning of possible disruption to nearby traffic. Eurostar said trains could not pass through Calais-Fréthun at the request of the French authorities. French reports said rail traffic was suspended in both directions between Calais and Boulogne after an unattended bag was reported at the station, with services expected to resume later in the morning, and passengers were advised to check with Eurostar and SNCF before travelling.

Source: Insurance Business, reporting the prefecture's X post and French reports

Services resume after the gendarmerie gives the all-clear to restart

Train services resumed later on Thursday morning after the gendarmerie authorised their restart, national rail operator SNCF said, according to Reuters' updated report. The national gendarmerie did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Neither Reuters nor the prefecture's reported statements said what the checks found, and no authority quoted in these reports described the alert as a hoax.

Source: Reuters, via Mix 92.9

The latest scare in a European wave of bomb threats

The alert came amid a broader wave of bomb threats and hoaxes reported in France and other European countries in recent months, targeting flights, schools and, in some cases, media organisations, Reuters reported. On Wednesday, around 6,300 schools in Italy, about 1,000 in Scotland and more than 300 in Northern Ireland were sent hoax bomb emails, and the week before, threats against airlines forced searches and diversions on dozens of flights, according to Insurance Business's reporting of the same wave. It was not immediately clear whether Thursday's Calais alert was linked to any of the previous threats.

Source: Reuters, via Mix 92.9; Insurance Business

What happens next

For travellers, the disruption itself is over: services through Calais-Fréthun resumed on Thursday morning, though Eurostar passengers were advised to check before travelling while delays worked through. The open questions sit with the French authorities — what the checks at the station found, and whether investigators connect this alert to the hoax-threat wave that closed thousands of European schools the day before. On the reporting available on Thursday, neither question has an official answer yet.