The scene at Bethnal Green Underground Station after a bag got stuck in the door (Picture: Courtney Hooper)

A packed tube station was evacuated in east London this morning after a passenger’s bag got stuck in a train door.

Hundreds of commuters were forced to leave Bethnal Green Underground Station at around 9am after the jammed bag held up services and led to overcrowding on the platform.

London Underground trains will not move from the platform unless all the doors have been closed.

The incident happened on a Central Line service which is one of the busiest and most complained about routes in London.


Courtney Hooper, a photographer originally from New Zealand, said her normal journey to work from Leyton to Shepherds Bush took two hours instead of 40 minutes.

Shoutout to the guy that got his bag stuck in the doors on my carriage and got both the entire train AND Bethenal green station evacuated #centralline — Courtney Hooper (@courthoop) October 16, 2019



She said Bethnal Green was ‘packed’ because trains were delayed and her train was held as people kept blocking the doors.

She said: ‘At some point a guy got his bag caught in the side of the door, which caused more trouble closing.

‘Other commuters and the guard on the platform tried to free the bag, and another guard brought some scissors down to cut it free.

‘At this point the door was pretty broken, and wouldn’t close properly.

‘So they made all of us get off that particular carriage and planned to continue on.

‘However it didn’t work and everyone on the entire train had to get off.

Bethnal Green Station in east London (Picture: Shutterstock)

‘As the platform was already busy you can imagine how packed it was when an entire full train load of people off onto the platform.

‘The evacuation alarm sounded and everyone had to leave the station.’

Ms Hooper said that she heard reports a person had fainted during the overcrowding.

When she posted about the delays on Twitter, one said: ‘Shout outs to every commuter who runs at closing doors when there’s another train in less than three minutes.

‘If you gotta run for work, you’re already late.’

Central Line users had also faced major delays for several hours on Tuesday evening because of a faulty train at Notting Hill Gate.

A Transport for London spokesperson said: ‘I’d like to apologise for the disruption on the Central line this morning.

‘A bag got stuck in a train door at Bethnal Green and damaged the mechanics which meant it had to be taken out of service.

‘As there were additional crowds at the station it needed to be temporarily evacuated for customer safety. Our team worked had to restore the service as quickly as possible.’

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