Southampton family in Eurostar chaos to get to the Olympics

On Friday, a series of targeted arson attacks forced rail operator Eurostar to cancel one in four of its trains over the weekend - causing chaos for those planning to travel to Paris for the global sporting event.

French rail company SNCF said a series of incidents overnight into Friday had affected travel to and from London, to Belgium and across the west, north and east of France.

READ MORE: Southampton runner Mahamed Mahamed comes fourth in London Marathon

Researcher Ian Ralph, 48, said he felt “panic” and was “stressed” when he realised his train to Paris was cancelled.

Ian and his family have tickets for the games, including the women’s football on Sunday and beach volleyball on Monday.

Speaking at St Pancras on Friday, Ian from Southampton said: “We looked straight on our phones, saw the headlines and then my wife got an email from Eurostar straight away going ‘your train’s been cancelled’.”

Mr Ralph said he managed to book him and his family onto a train at 6pm – around three hours later than his original booking.

When asked how he felt when he saw the news of the railway disruption, Mr Ralph said: “Panic - but then you go into like ‘okay, what do we need to do?'”

 “I’m just stressed – I just want our train to come up on the board here and then we’ll get into the system, then I think I can relax once I know they’re checking us in.

“Our girls are 12 and 14 – the next time the Olympics come to Europe they’ll be grown up, when it was in London they were babies – so this is our chance to go and do the Olympics with them.”

Only a handful of seats were available to book on the remaining London to Paris Eurostar services on Saturday, while tickets for overnight coaches arriving in the French capital on Sunday morning were selling for as much as £197 through Flixbus.

Among those affected on Friday was Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who was to travel on the Eurostar for the Games’ opening ceremony but flew to Paris instead.