Wimbledon station disruption: Passengers 'crushed' as they force open doors and 'fear for their lives'

Witnesses have reported scenes of panic as passengers scrambled to evacuate a train outside Wimbledon station after a man "recited lines about homosexuality and sex outside of marriage being a sin."

Commuters "forced open the doors and jumped on the tracks" from the London Waterloo bound train on Monday morning (October 2).

The incident, which happened a few stops away from where a bucket bomb exploded , is being investigated by British Transport Police (BTP) and Network Rail .

One witness who was on board the South Western Railway (SWR) train shared his account on social media and described people "fearing for their lives".

Posting after the train came to a standstill at around 8.30am, the Twitter user said: "He caused such panic that some people have forced open the doors and jumped on the tracks.

"He recited lines about homosexuality and sex outside marriage being a sin.

"Some guy tried to tell him to stop scaring people and causing a crush."

Around 10 minutes later, the passenger said the man "had stopped" and was "standing there looking pretty sheepish."

He said while some passengers claimed the man had a bomb, the passenger stated that the man "said nothing of the sort."

He added a guard removed the man from the train and checked everything was okay after the speaker declared it was "doomsday" and "[it]was going to kill everyone".

The Twitter user, who posted an image of the man speaking to police officers on the station platform, continued: "[His] bag is empty, just a drink bottle and some books.

"Cops, transport police here to meet him, all very calm, police shake his hand, take him to chat.

He added: "Some people offer to be witness for him.

"I must say, well done and much respect to the guard on our train, he dealt with the guy with compassion, restraint and bravery."

Another passenger, Adam Brooks said earlier: "Alarm raised just outside Wimbledon as train waited for a platform, on the same route Parsons Green bomber took so understandable that people are a little jumpy.

"Person preaching about God and said you'd better pray doomsday is here."

Disruption caused by the incident and earlier points problems affecting platforms seven to 11 is expected to continue until 5pm.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "Passengers self-evacuated off a train and onto the tracks at Wimbledon this morning after a passenger incident.

"British Transport Police are investigating and there were no injuries to passengers or staff.

"This has caused significant delays to services in and out of Waterloo that will continue for the rest of the morning.

"We apologise for delays to journeys this morning and ask passengers to please check before they travel."

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