Thousands of Eurostar passengers to Paris this evening at St Pancras International (17 Dec) rush to catch the final services before a ban against non-essential travel comes into force at 12am Paris local time and 11pm GMT. The queue seen stretching through the concourse, through to the entrance and beyond into Midland Road was partly the result of an earlier service being delayed, the reason unknown.

The move comes in order to curb the spread of Omicron, as the UK reports 93,045 coronavirus cases today.
Elsewhere, flights sell-out with websites reported to have crashed as travellers scramble to enter France before the cut-off time.

French residents and citizens, key workers such as lorry drivers and students will be able to travel after today but everyone else will need to produce a 'compelling reason', delivering a blow to ski resorts as they prepared for a busy season over Christmas and the New Year.