Commuters were held up this morning after a man was taken seriously ill on a platform at Rayners Lane station.

The incident happened at 8.10am, when a man believed to be in his 80s collapsed on the platform when he stopped breathing.

The station which runs both Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines had been closed until 9.40am when it reopened after the man was taken away by an ambulance to Northwick Park Hospital.

Efforts to get the man out of cardiac arrest continued in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

London Underground’s operations director for the Metropolitan Line, Nigel Holness, said: “The eastbound platform at Rayners’ Lane station was closed just after 8.17am today after a male passenger became ill and was treated first by our staff and then London Ambulance service personnel.

"At 8.17am the station was closed due to onlookers gathering on the platform opposite the incident.”