A group of passengers trying to get home in the early hours this morning (Thursday) had a nasty surprise when they found they had been locked inside South Ruislip station.

The station gates had been closed at an earlier time than usual because the tube strike saw London Underground services in operation stop at 11pm.

At 25 past midnight 11 people got off the last Chiltern Line train from London Marylebone to High Wycombe to discover they were trapped inside the station in Long Drive, South Ruislip.

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Passenger Beren Reid, 22, said: "The tunnel that goes under the mainline tracks and onto the station concourse had been shut off and padlocked at the point where it joins the underground passageway. 

"From there we could see that the exits at the front of the building had also been shut off, and we tried calling out and rattling the gate to get the attention of tube staff but nobody came."

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Mr Reid said he spoke to British Transport Police who told the trapped commuters that an officer would be sent to the rescue, but they might have to wait for up to an hour and a half until someone arrived.

"Amongst us was a young lady named Miss Bloem, who lives just across the road from South Ruislip station, had recently had a fractured rib and was therefore walking with a stick.

"I sprained my ankle on Monday and although other members of the group successfully managed to get over the railings on the Southbound platform of the mainline station, it was physically impossible for some of us to do," he said.

The prayers of the four remaining passengers were answered at around 1am when they heard the calls of a London Underground employee.

Mr Reid said: "Luckily he had been in the area with the unenviable task of shutting up the local tube stations. Had he not been there, we would most likely have been stuck in the cold and high winds until the British Transport Police appeared."