'Dangerous' overcrowding for commuters at London Bridge

Hundreds of commuters were pictured stuck at London Bridge station

Huge crowds of commuters have been stuck at London Bridge station waiting to board trains.

Photos on social media showed hundreds of people queuing to get up to the escalators to platforms.

Passengers reported people being "kettled," having panic attacks and needing assistance to get out by station staff.

The managing director of Southeastern Railway said that the disruption was due to a trespasser.

Commuter Jimmy Court, who was travelling from Cannon Street to Hayes, Kent said: "You can see it looks like it was in the thousands.

"It was quite concerning and dangerous. Staff seemed to not know what to do and more and more people seemed to be joining the crowd from the new connecting services.

"There was no way out and the staff closed the escalators to the platforms.

"At least a couple of people had to be managed towards the exit [and] let through to the barriers with panic attacks.

"Most of the mess seems to be because of the December changes to the timetable that makes a huge number of Canon Street passengers change at London Bridge as the direct trains were removed."

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Posting on Twitter, Southeastern managing director Steve Wight said: "This is the second time that crowd control has been required at London Bridge recently. The last occasion was when a points failure caused disruption.

"Tonight's disruption was due to an emergency call stopping all trains due to a trespasser. A review will be held tomorrow."

A spokesperson for Southeastern added: "The trespasser has now been apprehended, power has been restored to all lines by Network Rail and normal services have resumed. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to our customers due to this incident."

The Deputy Leader of Greenwich Council has written an urgent letter to Southeastern about the conditions at London Bridge.

Network Rail has been approached for comment.

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