Last Friday, the services for the Channel Tunnel had to be interrupted due a fire that started when a lorry on board caught fire and flames spread quickly to other vehicles.

The fire started just before the French end, rescue teams arrived at the scene to control the flames and help 32 passengers evacuate through a service tunnel, most of them were lorry drivers, seven were English.

Some of the passengers were taken to a hospital with respiratory problems due to smoke inhalation. At the time there were no passenger trains in the tunnel.

The destruction caused by the flames are the worst in the tunnel’s history, French authorities said that in the main area of the fire temperatures reached 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832F), fire fighters managed to control the fire at around 7am UK time and spent another 2 hours putting minor fires out.

It took 300 fire fighters to control the fire and it is likely that Euro star will suffer significant delays to its services for some time.

The damage caused by the fire in 1996 took six month to repair and last week’s fire was much worst.