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Paris rail terminus temporarily shut down by unplanned strike

Services were slowly restored after an unscheduled strike by SNCF drivers closed one of Paris's six main railway stations.

Gare Saint-Lazare was closed from 10 am local time on Tuesday morning. Members of the Sud Rail labour union later voted to return to work, and the station re-opened at 7 pm the same day.

Gare Saint-Lazare is Europe's third busiest station, and its lines serve Paris suburbs, as well as inter-city routes to Normandy in northern France.

By WIKINEWS

AP Reports

The SNCF railway's secretary general Stephane Volant says the station, which serves mostly suburban trains, was closed Tuesday at around 10 a.m. (0900 GMT). He said it remains unclear when the station would be reopened.

French television showed images of dozens of passengers mulling around the station and trying to find alternative routes to their destinations.

Volant said the drivers' strike comes in response to an attack Monday night on a driver by six drunken youths in the western Paris suburb of Maisons-Lafitte.

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