“We were trapped in unbearable heat,” testified AFP Oussama El Cherif, 19, who wanted to reach the Odéon station in the center of the capital. After a long wait between two stations, he, like many other commuters, decided to “walk the rails”.
Five trains were blocked in the tunnel of Line 4 from 7:25 p.m., with the evacuation of all passengers completed at 9:30 p.m., a spokesman for the RATP told AFP.
“We express our apologies and deep regrets for this incident and the consequences it has caused. RATP CEO [Jean Castex, ndlr] An internal investigation has been requested to ascertain the exact causes of this rare incident,” the spokesperson said.
The incident, described as “exceptional” by RATP, followed “damage to one train” at 6:20pm and “disrupted the entire network between Port d’Orléans and Montparnasse”.
According to RATP, the blockage of trains (or shuttles in RATP’s jargon) in the tunnel forced passengers to “wait” inside “before being evacuated”.
A spokesman could not provide an estimate of the number of passengers affected.
“Truly Borderline”
Photos and videos on social networking site Twitter show passengers suffering from heatstroke on overcrowded trains and queues of passengers running off the tracks.
Françoise Rouveyrolles, 67, was on her way to the cinema with her husband when she was also trapped by a train approaching Odeon station.
“It was very difficult to live without knowing what was there for more than two hours,” he recounted to AFP.
“On the train, there were people who started to feel bad, it was really borderline … two, three people started to get angry, people kept turning on the alarm sign”, a- she reported, generally “an atmosphere of wisdom”.
At the time of evacuation, he had to take a small ladder and walk along the side of the train.
“Many of us were walking along the path between the rail and the wall, (…) in single file on the stones”, not looking “much”.
A spokesman for the administration also pointed to the “involuntary evacuation” of passengers from one shuttle, while other evacuations took place “under the control of the RATP.”
“Technical teams are working hard to put the installations back into service and allow traffic to resume as soon as possible,” he added.
Paris firefighters told AFP they sent two rescue vehicles to Montparnasse and reported no injuries.
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