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Tens of thousands of travellers could be stuck in the country or on the Continent due to cancelled Eurostar trains on Boxing Day.

Eurostar has had to cancel all 43 trains linking London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam the day after Christmas.

The cancellations have been announced even though none of the train company's staff are on strike.

Instead a strike by RMT union staff has been blamed for the change of service.

The High Speed One line between London and the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone will be closed from 6pm on 24 December to 6am on 27 December because signal workers are on strike.

Bertrand Gosselin, chief operations officer at Eurostar, said: “We know how important it is for our customers to be able to travel at this time of year, and as a business we always prioritise all services running over the festive period.

“We have left no stone unturned in our efforts to be granted access to the UK high-speed line on Boxing Day – as we have been on every other RMT strike day this year – and made it absolutely clear the impact this will have on those who were booked to travel.

“We share our customers’ frustration and disappointment and we will do all that we can to run extra services when the line is open to give passengers more flexibility.”