Metro trains resumed operating on a busy line that links several major tourist attractions in Paris, after a technical problem paralysed the network for hours, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people through dark tunnels in stifling heat, reports Yahoo! News.
The breakdown began shortly after 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday when a train on the busy Line 1, which serves the Louvre, the Champs Élysées
and other tourist landmarks of the capital, suddenly halted between the Bastille and Saint Paul stops in the popular Marais district.
Network operator RATP was unable to determine the cause of the incident, forcing the shutdown of the entire line.
A police source told AFP on Wednesday that 3,200 to 3,800 people on at least eight trains needed to be evacuated in an operation which lasted more than two hours.
The RATP said it could not confirm the number of passengers affected by what it called "an extremely rare event".
After long waits in the cars as temperatures -- and tempers -- rose, about 40 rescue workers and 150 RATP agents began helping people climb down from the cars and walk out along the tracks.