Even though i still managed to keep my appointments last week and the métro system was running pretty crappily, it wasn't until tonight that i realised how bad the strike really is.

People are crammed like cattle onto the quais, as soon as a train arrives there's a huge surge forward as people try to force their way into a carriage already heaving and busting at the seams with crushed bodies.

It's a very dangerous situation with exasperated and fractious people - it's not unusual for people to start 'verbalising', pushing and shoving and very nearly coming to blows.

Coming through the station at Chatelet tonight i saw that there were police preventing people from trying to get on board the already severly overloaded train that i was on

This madness just can not continue - someone is going to get badly hurt