People travelling home from work experienced severe delays and overcrowding in London on Wednesday, in one of the worst rush hours the capital has experienced for years.

With the city's underground network buckling under pressure, Transport for London (TfL) was forced to close and evacuate at least 17 tube stations, and run many lines with severe delays.

Commuters caught in the chaos took to social media to express anger and distress as gates were shut at Victoria, Oxford Circus, Bond Street, Knightsbridge, Green Park, Holborn, Finsbury Park, Highbury & Islington, Marble Arch, Warren Street, Walthamstow, and Queensway stations.

People said there was an "information blackhole" as they tried to make their way home in the evening, following a day of public transport disruption.

In two separate incidents people fell on to tracks on the underground network, closing the Central Line and Victoria Line temporarily.

The Piccadilly Line also suffered breakdowns and continued to operate with severe delays this morning, while engineers attempted to repair faulty wheels on some trains. Problems are expected to persist on the line for up to a fortnight.

Yesterday evening, a woman rushing for a train at Kings Cross, one of London's busiest stations, slipped and fell off the platform as people surged forwards when it was announced a delayed train to Leeds would leave in two minutes.

A witness told the Evening Standard: "Moments after setting off the train stopped and we were advised that someone was stuck under the train and we were evacuated.

"I think it may have been more to do with the fact they confirmed the platform two minutes prior to departure so everyone was running to make the train."

She was taken to hospital, where she was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The Victoria Line was suspended in the afternoon, after a person was hit and killed by a train at Blackhorse Road in north London.

On the Central Line, a 52-year-old man was hit by a train at Holland Park shortly before 5pm. He survived without life-threatening injuries.

Meanwhile, Oxford Circus became almost inaccessible with the entire junction blocked by commuters who could not get into the underground station.

Zoe Loftus-Bell described the panicked scenes as emergency alarms sounded at Kings Cross.

She told the Metro: "I walked to Euston and by the time I arrived they begun to evacuate that too.

"Staff told me to go into a tunnel then closed it from the other side so I felt trapped, everyone was panicking and flustered. I’m okay despite a few elbows to the head."

Gallery: 150 years of London underground Show all 27 1 /27 Gallery: 150 years of London underground Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube8.jpg Passengers on the London Underground in 1955 PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground Untitled-1.jpg The London Tube is celebrating its 150th anniversary Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube18.jpg World War II, 25th, September, 1940, Members of the public huddle together in a London underground station Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube17.jpg Queen Elizabeth II travels on a tube train after the official opening ceremony of London Underground's Victoria Line in 1969 Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube5.jpg A London Transport official showing the Prince of Wales the controls in the driver's car of a Jubilee Line train in 1979 PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube12.jpg Emergency services at Chancery Lane Underground Station in London after a tube train derailed in 2003 PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube1.jpg In this file picture taken on September 4, 2007 passengers jostle to enter the Underground station at Waterloo Station in central London, as commuters battled with severe transport disruption to get to work as unions staged a second day of strikes on the capital's underground system AFP Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube14.jpg Mayor of London Boris Johnson at the opening of the ticket hall at King's Cross St Pancras Station PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube3.jpg Londoners take shelter in the London Underground during the Blitz PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube4.jpg David Cameron travelling by tube on the Underground to the O2 Arena in London PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube9.jpg Lord Ashfield handing over the silver key to Col. Moore Brabazon during the opening of the Northern line, London in 1926 PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube13.jpg Two 'buskers' entertain travellers by playing musical instruments on the London Underground in central London AFP Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube2.jpg London resident Jean Farrow, 36, one of the first directly recruited female drivers sitting at the front of a tube train at Hammersmith station PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube7.jpg An underground train heads into Central London on the Piccadilly Line on day of winter AFP Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube11.jpg Torchbearer and London Underground employee John Light carrying the Olympic Flame onto an underground train at Wimbledon Station, London PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube10.jpg The fire-damaged escalators at King's Cross underground station in London in 1987 PA Gallery: 150 years of London underground tube19.jpg London Underground workers building the Piccadilly Line extension at Turnpike Lane in 1930 Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 141007280.jpg Marble Arch Tube Station Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 141007351.jpg A commuter at Westminster Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 141007639.jpg Victorian tile signs have been updated with more modern ones in some stations Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 143711297.jpg London Mayor Boris Johnson travelling on the Tube Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 149562350.jpg Bank station during the London 2012 Olympics GettyImages Gallery: 150 years of London underground 155708342.jpg Oyster cards were introduced on the Tube in 2003 Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 155708347.jpg The entrance to Westminster Underground with Big Ben in the background Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 158719828 (1).jpg Shoppers keen to catch the Boxing Day sale queue outside Bond Street for the Tube station to open early AM Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 140839627.jpg The Tube's famously dirt-covering patterned seat fabric Getty Images Gallery: 150 years of London underground 140839693.jpg A woman at Oxford Circus station Getty Images

A Transport for London spokesman said in a statement: "We apologise for the disruption caused to customers this evening. For the safety of our customers we implemented crowd control measures at some of our busier stations to prevent overcrowding at platform level.

"Our staff worked hard to keep customers informed of what was happening and to help them with their journeys."