Nine hurt as rush-hour trains collide

The number of passengers injured when two rush-hour trains collided outside a London station has risen to nine.

The 8.35am accident is believed to have been caused by a train going through a danger signal. The incident happened just outside Hither Green station near Lewisham in south east London.

The 8.08am Connex South East Networker train from Crayford in Kent to London's Cannon Street clipped the back of another London-bound Connex Networker which had departed from Sevenoaks, Kent.

Passengers from the Crayford train were able to get off their train via the platform at Hither Green. Customers on the Sevenoaks train were led to safety after the power to the line had been switched off and all trains halted.

The Health and Safety Executive has launched an immediate inquiry into the accident which comes less than two weeks after the Selby rail crash which claimed 10 lives. It is thought the 7.58am Sevenoaks train, which was also bound for Cannon Street, may have passed a signal at danger.

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

She said: "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. "

Ms O'Mahoney said one man was stretchered from the train by paramedics and had a neck brace on, while other people were ushered off in blankets looking shocked.

A Connex spokesman said: "The injuries seem confined to neck injuries and cuts and bruises. People are a bit shaken up. We don't know exactly what happened yet."

Figures last week from the HSE revealed that the number of signals passed at danger - SPADs - was still not reducing despite attempts to alleviate the problem following the October 1999 Paddington crash which claimed 31 lives.