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A young Londoner has told how police stormed the train he was on after passengers mistook his umbrella for a Samurai sword.

Police boarded a packed train at Deptford after reports of an armed man in one of its carriages on Monday morning.

Panicked passengers had raised the alarm after mistaking the umbrella 22-year-old Ray Brown was carrying for a deadly weapon.

A picture tweeted by Mr Brown minutes after the incident went viral, racking up thousands of re-tweets by amused social media users.

The digital creative from Abbey Wood told the Standard he was on his way to his aunt’s house in Stockwell when his journey was interrupted.

“I had this umbrella with a handle that looked like a Samurai sword,” he explained.

So Police just held up my train for 10 minutes because they thought my umbrella was a Samurai Sword pic.twitter.com/xOeyuVOaN5 — BreezyTaughtHer (@notblackbutbrwn) December 7, 2015

“They (police) got on the train but they didn’t even notice the handle. They went up and down the train about five or six times before they saw it. There were about six of them – they were very professional.”

Mr Brown said police simply inspected the umbrella before disembarking the train and allowing passengers to continue their journeys after the ordeal.

He added that he thought passengers were more wary of strangers on the rail network after a “terror-related” stabbing at Leytonstone Tube station on Saturday evening.

Mr Brown, who runs a blog in his spare time, also revealed his taste for “quirky” items, saying: “If I can get something practical and a bit quirky then that’s what I’ll go for.”

He said he later received concerned calls from friends after the image began to go viral on Twitter – with some fearing he may have been taken into custody.

And he admitted: “That picture makes me look like I’m about to take over the train, because of the Russian hat and the Samurai sword umbrella.”

A British Transport Police spokesman confirmed officers were called to Deptford Station after passengers raised the alarm.

“We were called at 10.30am on Monday, 7 December, following reports of a man carrying an item which looked like a sword on a train travelling towards Deptford,” he said.

“Officers met the train at Deptford station and spoke to the man. The item was found to be an umbrella, and no further action was necessary.

“While this incident turned out to be a false alarm, the report was made in good faith.”