Hundreds spend night on train after train accident in Belgium

As a result of an accident involving a high-speed Thalys train, hundreds of people spent Friday night on a train in the Belgian capital Brussels.

After cancellations and hours of delays on the Thalys line from the Midi station in Brussels to the Gare du Nord in Paris the day before, traffic resumed normally on Saturday morning, the Belga news agency said, citing a Thalys spokeswoman.

The high-speed trains also connect German cities such as Dusseldorf and Cologne with Brussels and Paris.

A Thalys train had collided with an animal on Friday afternoon near the western Belgian city of Tournai and was subsequently unable to continue its journey for hours due to a technical problem.

According to Belga, six Thalys trains had to be cancelled on the connection from Brussels to Paris. Between 700 and 800 of the passengers stranded in Brussels had decided to spend the night in a provided train in order to continue their journey as early as possible the next morning.

Other passengers spent the night in a hotel or went home.

According to the Thalys website, there were still slight delays on the route from Brussels to Paris on Saturday morning. However, some of the previous stops in Germany and the Netherlands were cancelled.