Thousands face travel delays after tunnel inferno

FRENCH and British firefighters yesterday finally extinguished a 1,000-degree inferno in the Channel Tunnel but tens of thousands of travellers faced delays as they waited for the undersea link to reopen.

A hundred firefighters were still at the site of the fire carrying out procedures to cool down the rail tunnel that links Britain to the European mainland, officials said.

The firefighters battled through the night against flames and heat that they said reached around 1,000 degrees Celsius after the blaze began on Thursday afternoon.