Paris: Travelers forced to evacuate their metro trains after a breakdown

An “exceptional” incident paralyzed line 4 of the Paris metro at rush hour late Wednesday afternoon with many passengers stranded for more than an hour and a half in trains, the CEO of RATP , Jean Castex, asking for an internal investigation, the management told AFP.

This incident led to the evacuation of five trains, stopped in tunnels, between two stations. Started at 7:25 p.m., their evacuation was not completely completed around 9:10 p.m., according to a spokeswoman for the RATP.

“We offer our fullest apologies and regrets for this event and the consequences it may have had. The CEO of RATP has requested an internal investigation to determine the exact causes of this rare incident,” the spokeswoman told AFP. This technical incident, described as “exceptional” by the RATP, followed a “damage on a train” which “disrupted the entire network between Porte d’Orléans and Montparnasse”.

“Send soldiers, evacuate people, it’s serious!”

At rush hour and in the heat, five trains (or shuttles in RATP jargon) were blocked in the tunnel, “forcing travelers to wait” inside “before they could be evacuated”. The RATP spokeswoman was unable to provide an estimate of the number of passengers affected.

On the social network Twitter, photos and videos show passengers suffering from the heat in crowded trains, as well as a line of passengers evacuating along the tracks.

“There was a spontaneous evacuation” of passengers from one of the shuttles, said the spokeswoman, according to which the other evacuations “are taking place under the control of the RATP”. “Technical teams are hard at work to put the facilities back into service and allow traffic to resume as soon as possible,” she added.

(AFP)Show comments