The traffic on the Channel Tunnel link between Britain and France was shut down on Thursday due to a major fire on a freight train, leaving thousands of train passengers stranded but fortunately with no major injuries.

Eurotunnel officials said 32 lorry drivers were evacuated from the freight shuttle link following a fire on a lorry some 10 kilometres from the French entrance to the tunnel at Calais.

The fire was believed to have started on a lorry which overturned on the freight shuttle, initial reports said. Reports in the French media said the truck involved was carrying the chemical phenol.

The tracks on which the cargo trucks are transported through the 50-kilometre-long tunnel between Folkestone in Britain and Calais in northern France are also used by Eurostar, the passenger rail link between London, Paris and Brussels.

A Eurostar spokesman said there were no passengers trains in the tunnel at the time of the incident, and the trains were returning to their nearest station.

Each Eurostar train carries more than 700 passengers. More than 2 million people travelled on Eurostar trains in the first 3 months of this year.

Travelling time to Paris was cut to 2 hours and 20 minutes when a new high-speed track came into operation on the British side of the line last year, hailing the train link as an alternative to flying.

Services are expected to remain closed for several days, causing misery for thousands of travellers and major disruption for cargo traffic between Britain and the European continent.

"All the train drivers are safe. No-one is at risk, no customers are at risk," a spokeswoman for operators Eurotunnel said.

However, a number of people had suffered from smoke inhalation and some had sustained cuts and bruises, she said.

The fire on the freight lorry broke out at around 1400 GMT Thursday on a freight lorry travelling from Folkestone to Calais.

Both French and British fire crews were dispatched to the incident.

Reports from Paris said French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had travelled to the scene.

Safety procedures in the tunnel were reviewed after a major fire on a shuttle train carrying trucks in November, 1996.

The Channel Tunnel was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and France's late President, Francois Mitterand, on May 6, 1994.

It lies 40 metres below the seabed of the English Channel and consists of two single track railway tunnels linked by cross passages to a service tunnel for evacuations and rescue operations.