Eurotunnel passengers were stranded for nearly five hours at subsea level after the train broke down beneath the Channel, leaving hundreds of passengers to be ushered to a service tunnel.

The incident happened late on Tuesday, affecting the 3.50pm Eurotunnel Le Shuttle service from Calais to Folkestone.

Travellers on the service shared their experience on social media, with videos showing people walking through the alternate tunnel alongside the 31-mile (50km) rail route between Britain and France.

Some passengers carried suitcases and walked with dogs through the tunnel while travellers on the Calais side were urged to stay away from the terminal until 6am on Wednesday, leading to large queues at the shuttle terminal late into Tuesday evening.

A traveller on the evacuated train, Michael Harrison, from Cranbrook, Kent, told PA: “We got on the 3.50pm crossing, approximately 10 minutes in the lights went out and the train stopped. We were told they needed to investigate an issue with the wheels. It took approximately one and a half hours for them to investigate and obviously not find anything.”

“After further waiting we left the train through the emergency link tunnel to the service tunnel. We then walked approximately 10 minutes to a train in front of the stricken train. That train then stopped as it couldn’t get traction, presumably as it was long and had no weight on it.”

Harrison arrived in Folkestone six hours after boarding the train.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle said: “A train has broken down in the tunnel and we are in the process of transferring customers to a separate passenger shuttle via the service tunnel, to return to our Folkestone terminal. We apologise sincerely for this inconvenience.”