Paris rail hub evacuated in terror-linked police manhunt – report

Police poured into Paris’s Gare du Nord station late Monday, evacuating passengers from platforms and sealing off the area in a new security scare to hit the French capital.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the operation was aimed at “removing doubt” but would not say what prompted it or whether there had been any injuries or arrests. A station employee said the operation focused on a train from Valenciennes in northern France.

Sources at the station told news agencies that officials at France’s national railway company SNCF had alerted police to the presence of three wanted individuals on the train, with some initial reports saying the three were wanted in a terror investigation.

The busy station is the terminus of a large suburban and national rail network as well as Eurostar trains from London.

France is under a state of emergency imposed after a series of Islamic extremist attacks. The operation came the day after a tense and closely watched presidential election that was won by independent Emmanuel Macron. He has said one of his top priorities will be ensuring France’s security.

Police started pouring into the station just after 11 p.m. and asked where the train from Valenciennes was, according to a station employee, who was not authorized to be publicly named. Station staff directed officers to platform 10, where they were quickly joined by more and more police. Within minutes, authorities began evacuating the entire station, the employee said.

The operation ended at 1:30 a.m. local time, police said in a tweet as officers on the outskirts of the cordon around the station began to pack up and the cordon was gradually pared back.

Some witnesses spoke of panic at the sight of officers armed with assault rifles and shields.

Benjamin, 29, disembarked from his train from Lille at 11:15 p.m. to find at the end of the quay “police officers in uniform (who) asked us to get out quickly from the station.” They were armed and equipped with shields, he said.

“When we met the police force, the people around us began to panic, scream and run to the exits and the subway,” he added.

Claire Sinead, 19, was leaving the subway when she saw the “police everywhere” on the station platform.

“They told us to run, to evacuate the area,” she said, describing police forces with “helmets and all their equipment.” Living nearby, she went home escorted by a policeman.

Olivier Queneau was waiting for his train for Orry-la-Ville when he saw the police enter the station. “They told us to evacuate. On leaving, security agents told us that a man was armed, and we went out calmly,” he said.

Dave James Phillips, a 39-year-old technology consultant from Britain, said he was getting off the last train in from London when he saw officers flooding the station.

“There were police immediately, and a chap with his hand on his gun,” Phillips told AP. “As we were walking down the platform, one came down and said, ‘Rapide, rapide. Out, out.’”

Phillips said police kept pouring into the station as passengers were hustled out and police buses and unmarked cars were “driving quite dramatically up the road.”

Phillips said he had since left the area.

“Hopefully nothing happened,” he said.

A Eurostar spokeswoman said the incident did not appear to have any relation to its trains and did not appear to affect its passengers. The operation began after the last Eurostar arrivals and departures late Monday.

Throughout the operation, access to the rail station and adjacent subway platforms was sealed off, according to an AFP reporter.