Eyewitnesses tell of panic

Police cordon off The Oval station

Eyewitnesses to today's incidents in London described scenes of panic as passengers were evacuated from Tube trains

Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"I was sitting in the carriage reading a book and I smelt something burning, like wiring or tyres, and it just got more intense.

"Suddenly people panicked and started screaming and were walking on each other's backs trying to get the hell out of there.

"I couldn't move, I didn't know what to do, whether to run or not.

"People ran and left their shoes and belongings when they smelt the burning," Mr Mohellavi said.

Victoria Line passenger Ivan McCracken claimed a traveller's rucksack had exploded on the Tube outside Warren Street station.

He said: "I was in a middle carriage and the train was not far short of Warren Street station when suddenly the door between my carriage and the next one burst open and dozens of people started rushing through. Some were falling, there was mass panic.

"It was difficult to get the story from any of them what had happened but when I got to ground level there was an Italian young man comforting an Italian girl who told me he had seen what had happened.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack.

"The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."

One eyewitness at Warren Street Tube station said: "I saw one old lady being brought out of the Tube who looked very shaken. They've closed off the roads around Warren Street and we have been pushed back. There are also sniffer dogs going under cars and into shops."

An eldery woman at Warren Street said she had been evacuated from her home near the station and told to wait in a nearby street.

Claire Dresser, BBC employee, said "They evacuated all the restaurants and shops in Shepherd's Bush and we were all rushed away from the direction of the station. They said there was a suspect package and everything is now cordoned off. There were lots of emergency personnel arriving on bicycles."

Rebecca Hamilton, 34, from Chiswick, was working in Bush Studios, a rehearsal studio in the arches directly underneath the Shepherds Bush station of the Hammersmith and City Line when she was told to evacuate.

She said: "We work underneath the station in the arches and police came in and kind of told us to get out basically, just to drop everything and get out. We have left all our cars and everything in there."

She continued: "We didn't hear any noise but we didn't hear trains for about a good half-an-hour before and they just told us to get out and we ran out.

"When we first came out of the arches we just mingled around but now they are telling us to get back (to the moving police cordon)."

Shepherds Bush Green was sealed off with police tape and crowds congregated on either side of the park.

But the Central Line station, about 100m along the road, remained open with passengers going in and out.

The area was closed to traffic with vehicles being diverted off the main Shepherds Bush roundabout.

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