London Underground passengers are most likely to be victims of racially or religiously aggravated abuse at King’s Cross St Pancras, new figures reveal.

Statistics show 1,960 race and religiously motivated hate crimes were reported on the London Underground from January 2015 to December 2017.

King’s Cross St Pancras, London’s second busiest Tube station, took top spot with 51 hate crimes reported over the three-year period, around 17 offences a year. Oxford Circus — also one of London’s busiest Tube stations — was the second in the league table with 47 reported hate crimes over three years, according to figures obtained from British Transport Police through a Freedom of Information request.

Other Underground stations with double-digit hate crime reports were Baker Street with 45 incidents, Stratford with 44 and West Ham with 43.

London's worst stations for rising race hate crime 1 King’s Cross St Pancras 51 2 Oxford Circus 47 3 Baker Street 45 4 Stratford 44 5 West Ham 43 6 Wembley Park 38 7 Liverpool Street 34 8 London Bridge 29 10 Finsbury Park 29 11 Vauxhall 28 12 Earl’s Court 28 13 Green Park 28 14 Bank 27 15 Hammersmith 26 16 Waterloo 25 17 Stockwell 24 18 Shepherd’s Bush 22 19 Bethnal Green 22 20 Seven Sisters 2

The numbers also reveal hate crime on the London Underground has risen by almost a third in three years.

A total of 718 racially and religiously motivated hate crimes were reported last year, compared with 695 in 2016 and 546 in 2015.

Rose Simkins, chief executive of leading anti-hate crime charity Stop Hate UK, believes the rhetoric of politicians building up to the EU referendum may have led some people to believe the Brexit vote was about race, rather than about economics or independence.

She said: “From the day the EU referendum result was announced, we saw an immediate change and increase in people calling us. It does seem to unleash this level of racism that it doesn’t matter who you target, that you’re free to target somebody. A minority of people are feeling bolder and think they can say these things and get away with it.”

British Transport Police, which launched anti-hate crime campaign WeStandTogether last year, urges victims to continue to report hate offences by ringing 0800 40 50 40 or by texting 61016. In an emergency call 999.

Chief Inspector Chris Casey said: “The sort of hate crime we see on the transport network is largely verbal abuse, rather than physical attacks, but this is extremely serious and we treat every report seriously.”