A power fault has stopped a Eurotunnel train in the Channel Tunnel, causing hundreds of passengers to be evacuated from the train and causing long delays.
The France-bound train, carrying 382 people, stopped about a quarter of the way through the tunnel at 07:30 BST.
Eurotunnel said as services could only run in one tunnel, queues were building up and delays were expected all day.
The delays could affect the Tour de France, with teams travelling to France after Monday's stage ending in London.
Eurotunnel, which carries passengers in vehicles on board trains between Folkestone and Calais, said it expected the problem to be fixed by the end of the day and that services should run normally on Tuesday.
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Richard Westcott says big queues are forming as passengers wait at St Pancras
There are also delays on Eurostar passenger services, with delays and cancellations on trains between London St Pancras and Paris and Brussels.
Eurotunnel said a fault with the overhead power lines in the tunnel caused the problem.
The driver brought the train to a stop and passengers were evacuated into the middle service tunnel, which runs between the two main tunnels and is designed to allow people to escape from halted trains.
A train was brought from France along the other main tunnel and parked alongside the stopped train to allow passengers to board it and be carried to France without their cars.
Passenger Richard Byrom told BBC Radio Kent: "All of a sudden I heard this crashing noise, it didn't sound like the train itself had crashed but what became evident later on was that the power cables had got entangled or come down.
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Richard Byrom, passenger: "We were evacuated into the service tunnels"
"For about 20 minutes the train just stopped and we didn't know what had happened.
"Eventually they said they are going to take us off the train because they couldn't move our train because it was trapped by the power cables or something like that."
He said the passengers had to wait in the service tunnel for about half an hour before boarding the train that took them to France and he had been stuck for about four hours in total.
'Queues building up'A Eurotunnel spokesman said: "The evacuated passengers are now at the French terminal and are waiting for the affected train to arrive so they can get their cars.
"We are advising people who don't need to travel today to travel on another day.
"There are queues building up and travellers should expect delays throughout the day."
The firm continues to run services in the one unblocked tunnel but has stopped taking bookings for the day. It said there was a waiting time of approximately 60 minutes before check-in and up to five hours at the terminal.
Eurostar, which operates passenger trains through the tunnel running between London and Paris and Brussels, said it had been forced to cancel four return services and warned passengers on trains that were running to expect delays.
"If travel today is non-essential you can exchange your ticket, free of charge, to another available service within the next four months," it told customers.
If delays continue, they could hit the cyclists competing in the Tour de France. After the Monday stage finishes on the Mall in central London, the whole Tour de France convoy, with teams travelling on coaches, is due to head to France, where the fourth stage is set to begin in Le Touquet on Tuesday.
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