Bought at a popular Sunday morning flea market in Saint-Ouen, it was placed inside one of the passengers’ luggage before being spotted by security cameras.
Bomb disposal experts, firemen and police were immediately scrambled to the Gare du Nord, the main Eurostar terminal in Paris, with services held up by at least an hour.
‘Live explosives are strictly banned on all cross-Channel services, no matter how old they are,’ said a French customs source.
‘All kinds of banned articles are picked up every day, but this is the fist time that someone’s tried to get through with a pre-First World War shell in their luggage.’
The device dated back to France’s Third Republic, and a time when the whole country was full of live explosives following the Franco-Prussian war, and because of the slow build-up of arms towards the Great War.
All kinds of security scares have held up the Eurostar service since it began in 1994, but this is believed to be the first time that antique explosives have been to blame.
A Eurostar spokesman confirmed: ‘There was a security incident which caused slight disruption to a couple of our services.’
The Saint-Ouen flea market is the largest in Paris and sprawls between Porte de St-Ouen and Porte de Clingnancourt.
It attracts as many as 150,000 traders, tourists and bargain hunters at weekends.
The market sells everything from antiques to second-hand and new clothes, office chairs and even old tin baths.
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Daily Mail |
