Eurostar services have been hit by major disruption

Eurostar said it had cancelled four trains, transferring passengers to later services. It has also warned of delays of up to two hours.

A spokesman could not confirm whether the person died when they were hit on the track between Lille and Calais.

The rail operator said services would return to normal by Thursday morning.

French TGV services were also reported to be affected by Wednesday afternoon's incident.

The effect of this incident is major disruption Eurostar spokesman

The spokesman said: "The 1459 travelling from Brussels to London Waterloo hit someone who was on the track between Lille and Calais."

He said no passengers on board the train were injured by the jolt, as far as he was aware.

"The effect of this incident is major disruption to all our services," he said.

"Passengers on all services in either direction will experience delays of up to two hours this evening - but at this stage we anticipate things will be back to normal by tomorrow morning."

'Thud and shudder'

He added: "We are still advising people to check in as normal this evening.

"We will move people to later trains if necessary, but everyone will be accommodated."

Former UK Independence Party leader and MEP Roger Knapman was on the Eurostar train when it hit the person.

He said: "I heard a thud and felt a shudder. We were travelling very fast at that point."

He said no-one on the train panicked when it came to a sudden halt, and emergency services were at the scene very quickly.