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Commuters travelling in east London have faced chaos after a Central Line failure left “babies and elderly people stuck” underground for up to an hour.

Tube users took to social media to claim they were stuck on trains underground between Mile End and Stratford on Thursday evening after the busy line suffered delays.

The Central Line had no service between Liverpool Street and Leytonstone and was operating with severe delays just after rush-hour at 7pm.

Transport for London has apologised to customers who faced delays and said the issue was due to a broken down train.

One commuter told the Standard: “The train prior to us had a failure or some sort, which had a domino effect and we were stuck in the tunnel.”

The 20-year-old said there was “no light, no air, nothing” while babies and pensioners were on board the train.

He said his usual 30 minute journey took 180 minutes as he tried to get to Stratford station after finishing work.

The commuter, who asked not to be named, said his train was trapped in a tunnel for over an hour as it was approaching the platform.

He said: “It was really packed at the front carriage because people were walking through the doors trying to get signal and there was no ventilation.

“I was quite lucky because I had a fan, but a lot of people didn’t have one and kids were crying.”

One passenger “vomited” after getting off the train, he claimed, because of the heat.

“The police did a really, really good job helping people out and there was a medical team there who were handing out water to people after,” he added.

Another commuter wrote: “So I’ve been stuck between two stations on the Central Line for 75 (!) minutes now and the driver just announced that [the] train in front of us is broken and there’s no way to fix it, so our train will drive into it and push it from behind.”

One Tube user also wrote: “There is a hell on Earth…just been stuck on Central Line for over 1.5 hours in the tunnel between Mile End and Stratford. Took that long to move a defective train. Total shambles.”

British Transport Police have also been approached by the Standard for further information.

Later in the evening, the Central Line tweeted: “The line is back up and running, but we have severe delays to all destinations on the line.

“This is due to an earlier faulty train at Stratford.”

A spokeswoman for TfL said: “We sincerely apologise to Central line customers who experienced delays this evening, particularly those who were stalled outside of Stratford for such a long period of time.

“The issue was caused by a broken down train at Stratford, which caused four trains to be stuck behind it.

“Our engineers were on site to resolve the issue within a matter of minutes but unfortunately the broken down train needed to be moved, and at a slow pace which resulted in the four trains behind it being stalled for approximately two hours (19.19 - 20.21 to be precise).

“It would have been undoubtedly an uncomfortable experience for our customers.”