A man from Senegal has been reunited with a suitcase containing almost 27,000 euros after leaving it on a train near Paris.

Passengers on a train at Massy, 20 kilometres south of Paris, called police when they spotted the abandoned suitcase on Wednesday afternoon. A police source says officers opened the case and found the money in bills as well as rolled up clothes.

A 25-year-old man from Dakar went to police on the same night, telling officers he fell asleep on a train from Charles de Gaulle Airport, north-east of Paris. When he woke up after missing his stop, he immediately got off the train and left the expensive cargo behind. The man told police he came to Paris to buy spare car parts to sell in Senegal.

Police say the suitcase and the money were returned to the man, but he will have to pay a fine for not declaring the money to customs.