Eurostar services resume as thousands of passengers are turned away

Around 3,000 customers formed a queue several hundred metres long at London’s St Pancras station from 5am with some people waiting overnight to catch the first trains.

However, the company is only offering a limited service for passengers who had tickets for December 19 and 20, meaning many were told to return on Wednesday.

After three days of cancellations, the first train was due to leave London at 7.30am but pulled away 10 minutes later as crowds surged to get onboard.

Eurostar said it had warned thousands of customers with tickets for Tuesday not to come to the station because they would not be guaranteed seats.

However, hundreds arrived with their luggage in the hope that they would be allowed on, only to be refused a seat after queuing for more than an hour.