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Commuters today told of “mayhem” on overcrowded trains as a string of late-night services were cancelled when 14 drivers fell ill.

Operator National Express blamed the chaos on illness but rumours spread among passengers of an unnofficial walkout by staff in revolt over unpopular new timetables.

Up to a dozen services departing Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street were cancelled with others delayed or carrying a reduced number of carriages from 7.30pm last night.

One horrified commuter told how two men in business suits unable to reach the toilets through the crush wet themselves in their seats.

Hannah Fisher, 35, caught the 10.49pm from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness where passengers were crammed into four carriages instead of eight.

She said: “I’ve never seen it like this in 15 years, I was horrified.

“At Fenchurch St the delays just kept popping up on the board and staff couldn’t or wouldn’t say anything.

“When I managed to board it was mayhem. One man by the doors was trying to get through the crush but kept being pushed back, people couldn’t move to let him through. In the end he just couldn’t hold it.

“Another chap in a seat got up and tried squeezing past but he couldn’t move. When he left that the man next to him said ‘well those trousers will be going to the dry cleaners tomorrow’”.

One passenger tweeted: “Several drivers falling ill all at once.

Ben Thornton, 26, and his girlfriend Katie Haygarth, 31, both actors, were travelling home after watching Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

They had tried to catch the 10.19pm train to Leigh-on-Sea but the service was cancelled and they squeezed onto a later train.

Mr Thornton said: “It was absolutely packed – it was like rush-hour but it was 10.30pm.

“No-one knew what was going on. One guy was wearing a C2C orange bib but he had no information.

“Everyone was standing up. At every station people were shouting out ‘can you move down’ but we couldn’t it was chaos.

“We heard rumours that six or seven drivers had gone missing. It was a nightmare.”

C2C launched a new timetable on December 13 last year and said it was aimed at increasing capacity by 3,000 passengers every morning.

A tweet from its official account said: “Sorry, we had a few drivers fall ill today, which mean some evening services had to be cancelled.”

A spokesman for C2C said 14 of its 150 drivers fell ill at the same time causing the near-meltdown.

He said: “We are very sorry for the disruption caused to our passengers last night, when there was a short-term increase in drivers unable to work because of sickness.

“We used our contingency drivers to ensure we still ran the last trains and got everyone home.”