Passengers were stuck for two hours inside the Channel Tunnel after their train broke down.

The Eurostar train from Ebbsfleet had to stop close to the French coast on Friday morning.

It then had to be shunted into Calais where passengers took another to Paris - enduring a total delay of five hours.

A Eurostar spokesman: "The train had to stop in the tunnel for a couple of hours. It encountered a technical problem while going through, the cause of which is now being investigated."

The passengers had been on the 9.40am service from London, calling at Ebbsfleet at 9.59am, then it halted in the tunnel close to Calais.

The technical failure had even affected the train's speaker system, which meant that crew members had to go through carriages to explain the delay to passengers in person.

The spokesman added: "Another train had to be brought in to push the train to Calais where passengers were given food and drink before being put on a replacement service to Paris."

The 9.40 train was meant to arrive in Paris at 1.23pm, local time, but instead passengers got there at 6.30pm.