A family who regularly travel to France by Eurostar fear a major disaster will be caused by passengers thrown into panic when it breaks down.

The Shewbridge family, of Savoy Road, Dartford, have experienced two Eurostar breakdowns both times being plunged into darkness with no air-conditioning and very little

information.

The family take the train to Paris several times a year to visit Claire Shewbridge, 30, who lives and works in the French capital.

Claire's brother Andrew, 27, was travelling on an early train to Paris, with friends Melanie Shawcross and Lee Seymour, when it broke down between Ashford and the Channel Tunnel, causing a four-hour delay last October.

He told News Shopper: "People were beginning to get really stressed by it all. There was no communication and the air-conditioning was not working.

"There should be a back-up for these incidents. Rather than trying to help people, the staff disappeared from sight."

In January, Claire Shewbridge was travelling back to the UK on Eurostar when it broke down in a tunnel leaving passengers in darkness, again with no air-conditioning.

After a third Eurostar train broke down outside Waterloo on February 7, dad Colin Shewbridge, 62, wrote to News Shopper. Passengers on the London-to-Paris train were stranded for hours due to a technical fault and left with no information or air-conditioning.

He said: "We are very concerned about the lack of information available to passengers who are being left stranded for hours on these trains. There is soon going to be a situation where people panic and lives are in danger.

"Staff need to go through the trains regularly updating passengers to keep everything under control."

Mr Shrewbridge also contacted Dartford MP Dr Howard Stoate who wrote to Eurostar. He received a letter from the chief executive, some vouchers and a fare reimbursement on the family's behalf.

A Eurostar spokesman said: "Eurostar trains are completely safe, staff are fully trained and special procedures are in place. During the incidents on October 11 and in January, announcements were given, but perhaps not as many as passengers would have liked.

"There are always staff on-hand to deal with individual passenger's problems.

"With regard to the third incident of February 7, we have put our hands up and set up a formal inquiry into the incident. We will apply the lessons which result."