19 workers suffer carbon monoxide poisoning in Channel tunnel

Nineteen workers suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while working overnight in the Channel tunnel, with one of them seriously affected, French officials said today.

Sixty people, including workers from a company commissioned by Eurotunnel and Eurotunnel employees, were in the process of changing rails on the line between the towns of Calais in France and Folkestone in Britain when a welder took ill overnight, said officials from France's Pas-de-Calais department.

"Carbon monoxide poisoning was diagnosed," an official said, adding the worker, who was "quite seriously affected", was taken to a hospital in Calais then Lille in northern France.

Eighteen other workers were also taken ill and sent to hospitals in Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dunkerque, "the time needed to remove the carbon monoxide from their system", an official said, adding their condition was not a cause for concern.
 

The 41 other workers were able to return home.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the incident.