A group of passengers, who travelled from Folkestone to Calais on the Eurotunnel, found themselves back in Folkestone rather sooner than they expected after officials forgot to let them off in France. The day trippers were on the train in seven vehicles parked behind a wagon which had been left empty due to a fuel incident.

Eurotunnel staff were apparently oblivious to the fact that the passengers were there because, having unloaded the cars at the front of the train, the shuttle set off on its 40 minute journey back to the UK.

Once back in Folkestone, Eurotunnel representatives were on hand to apologise for the mistake and get all passengers safely onto the next train destined for the continent. Each customer was also given a refund for the journey and an additional ticket to be used at a later date.

A spokesman for Eurotunnel has admitted that the mistake was an embarrassing one. He added that full apologies had been issued to each of the passengers, pointing out that in the 16 years since the tunnel started operating, nothing like this has ever happened.

There have however been other complications with the tunnel, including the disruption caused to around 100,000 passengers when the Eurostar had to suspend services because the wrong type of snow was falling on the track. Last summer a train, carrying passengers heading off on their holidays, broke down in the tunnel leaving around 500 passengers without lights or air conditioning for a number of hours.