Mystery truck scare at Eurotunnel
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• Eurotunnel was forced to evacuate the lorry park at Folkestone last week after a driver abandoned his Seddon Atkinson artic in "suspicious" circumstances.
At about 01:30hrs on 15 February a lorry was found unattended on the park. The keys were still in the ignition but there was no sign of the driver, says a Eurotunnel spokesman. Security staff were concerned about the wiring of the vehicle and called the police, who then evacuated the area including the passenger terminal and the toll booths. However, the tunnel itself was not affected.
As CM went to press the driver had still not reappeared. "This is the first time something like this has happened," says the spokesman.
Kent police examined the vehicle, which was from a haulier based in Poole, Dorset, but they say nothing suspicious was found. We get calls on a regular basis about suspicious vehicles—in 99.9% of cases they turn out to be OK," says a spokesman. "But we have to err on the side of caution." The vehicle is no longer in the park.
The news came just days before the publication of Eurotunnel's 1997 financial results which showed an operating profit for the first time—of £57m. This compares with a loss of £35m in 1996. Freight movements rose by 16% to 2.8 million tonnes in 1997.