Security scare at Paris Gare du Nord railway station

Police poured into Paris’ Gare du Nord station on Monday evening, evacuating passengers from platforms and sealing off the area for several hours in a new security scare to hit the French capital.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the operation was aimed at “removing doubt” and ended with no arrests, but she would not say what prompted it. A station employee said the operation focused on a train from Valenciennes in northern France.

The busy station is the terminus of a large suburban and national rail network as well as Eurostar trains from London.

The operation came the day after a closely watched presidential election that was won by Emmanuel Macron, who has said one of his top priorities will be ensuring France’s security.

France is under a state of emergency imposed after a series of Islamic extremist attacks, and while police would not indicate the reason for the Gare du Nord operation, its scale and nature recalled the kind of anti-terrorism actions that have grown increasingly frequent around Paris and beyond.

Police from the special BRI intervention force started pouring into the station just after 11 p.m. and asked where the train from Valenciennes was, according to a station employee, who was not authorized to be publicly named. Station staff directed officers to platform 10, where they were quickly joined by more and more police. Within minutes, authorities began evacuating the entire station, the employee said.

A Eurostar spokeswoman said the incident did not appear to have any relation to its trains and did not appear to affect its passengers. The operation began after the last Eurostar arrivals and departures on Monday.