Lewisham passenger tells of crash

Passengers have been telling how they came away unscathed after two trains collided in south east London.

The accident happened when a London-bound train "clipped" the back of another train just outside Hither Green Station near Lewisham

Passenger Karen O'Mahoney, 27, said the Crayford train came to a screeching halt just after it left Hither Green station.

"The train was just coming out of the platform when it stopped very sharply," said the advertising executive, from Mottingham, south-east London.

"At first we thought it had come off the rails or there had been an incident up ahead. We didn't realise we had actually hit something but people in the front carriage said they could actually feel it lifting up after it hit the other train.

"We sat there for about a minute and a half with alarm bells ringing until an announcement came over telling us not to panic. There was a very tense atmosphere because we didn't know what was happening. People were very anxious.

"They got even more worried when they saw the ambulances and fire engines."

One man was stretchered from the train by paramedics and had a neck brace on, she added, while other people were ushered off in blankets looking shocked.

Ms O'Mahoney criticised rail staff for failing to tell passengers what was going on after the collision.

She said: "It was disgraceful. We were sat there for 40 minutes without anyone telling us what was going on. We only found out what had happened when someone phoned home to say they were going to be late and their wife said they had heard about the crash. "