Panicked
passengers forced their way out of their rush hour train after a man
read out Bible passages in the carriage. The train was just outside
Wimbledon at around 8.30am, when the man started reading out phrases such as ‘death is not the end’.
Commuters
became scared, and started trying to get out of the carriage as quickly
as possible. As the passengers forced open the doors and climbed
frantically onto the tracks, the rail power lines were cut. The train
was travelling from Shepperton to Waterloo, one of London’s busiest
commuter lines.
Cops,transport police here to meet him, all very
calm, police shake his hand, take him to chat. Some people offer to be
witness for him
Ian, who was on the train, tweeted that the
man’s Bible-reading caused a ‘crush’ and a ‘commotion’. He said that
someone asked the man to stop speaking ‘as he was scaring people’, after
which ‘the guy stopped and stood there with his head down’.
Other
passengers praised a guard, who apparently dealt with the situation
with ‘compassion, restraint and bravery’. A Network Rail spokesman said:
‘Passengers self-evacuated off a train and on to 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. ‘A signal
failure at Waterloo also caused some earlier disruption to trains – this
was resolved by 0815.
We apologise for delays to journeys this
morning and ask passengers to please check before they travel.’ A
British Transport Police spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: ‘We were called
at 8.31am today to Wimbledon after reports of a disturbance on a train
to Waterloo. Passengers evacuated themselves onto the tracks. ‘BTP
attended and are carrying out enquiries at present. No one was injured
and no arrests have been made.’