'No electricity, no toilet, no info!' Passengers rage as Eurostar trains stranded for HOURS overnight on New Year's Eve

The train operator had been forced to cancel all its London to Europe services when an overhead power supply problem and a failed LeShuttle train blocked all routes.

On Tuesday evening it said that "as the overhead power supply issues in the Channel Tunnel still remain, only one line is available to run trains on" and warned of ongoing delays for the rest of the day.

But as the hours went on, would-be travellers took to social media to vent at the "absolutely scandalous" situation.

One, Youssef, from France, said he was "stuck" after five hours on board shortly after midnight.

Almost four hours later, he and a trainful of passengers were still waiting for updates - and had been told they had a 50/50 chance of ending up in Paris or London.

Youssef wrote on social media that his train was left without electricity, toilets or information.

He went on to hail crew for having to deal with "angry" passengers without having slept themselves.

"It’s electricity... just plug the cables together," he joked.

Fellow Frenchman Gerard Manvuca said there was "nothing on the rotten company's website" at 4am. "A disgrace," he added.

But rail enthusiasts told passengers to "abandon all hope" of getting to Paris as a diesel locomotive pulled in to bring the stranded Eurostar back to St Pancras in the small hours of New Year's Eve.

A passenger on the London-Amsterdam service, Ryan, said his train had "just moved backwards and then stopped again" just after 3.20am.

"It feels like we'll see the last sunrise of the year from the train," he said.

On Tuesday evening, Eurostar staff at St Pancras were seen handing out water bottles to people waiting by a cordon who were caught up in the delays.

Cars hoping to cross the Eurotunnel caused traffic jams on the approach to the Folkestone terminal.

LeShuttle passenger Tim Brown said he had been stuck in his car on the train at the Calais terminal for more than three hours with "no access to food or water".

Mr Brown, who was trying to get back to the UK after spending Christmas in Germany, was travelling with his dogs - who he said are "hating life" stuck on the train.

A statement from Eurostar said: "We continue to advise our customers to rebook their journey for another day if possible, with free exchanges available.

"We also advise customers not to come to our stations if their trains have been already been cancelled.

"Although outside of our control, we apologise for the disruption today and will continue to keep customers updated with the latest information and support them with rescheduling their bookings."