'I've never been so terrified in my life': Innocent train passenger tells of moment police put a gun to his head

The dramatic swoop at Bournemouth station led to Nzube Udeze being frogmarched by armed police and interrogated after a case of mistaken identity.

The 21-year-old computer science graduate, who is set to join management consultancy firm Accenture next month, said he was 'embarrassed' and 'shocked' by Saturday's ordeal.

Dramatic pictures of the incident - captured on another passenger's mobile phone - were featured yesterday in the Mail, prompting comparisons with the case of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead by police in error after the failed July 21 bomb attacks.

Innocent Nzube Udezue has spoken of his fear and embarrassment after police mistakenly pointed a gun at his head on a train platform

It came as new figures released yesterday showed that black people are seven times as likely as white people to be stopped and searched by police.

Mr Udezue was returning from Southampton to his home in Bournemouth, where he lives with his parents.

His father Emmanuel is an eminent doctor and fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, while his mother Chika is a journalist.

He wrote yesterday on his online blog of the arrest: 'When I woke up this Saturday morning, I could happily say that I'd managed to get through (almost) 22 years of my life without any real incident with the police.

'I could also say that I'd never had a gun pointed at me. Little did I know that by 6.10pm I'd be lying face down on the ground, handcuffed, with several sub-machine guns pointed at me.'

'It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it was me that all those guns were aimed at.

'Are they seriously talking to me? I honestly felt like I’d stepped off the train and into a really bad dream.'

'Most of the bystanders have vacated the platform by now, by police order. And I’m not talking about normal police either.

'This is the Specialist Firearms Unit, about eight of them, machineguns, bulletproof vests, police dogs and all.'

Former public schoolboy Mr Udezue - who is also a hip hop artist going by the name of Zuby - had spent the day in Southampton promoting his music.

He added: 'It appears that someone whose description I matched (a black male wearing a dark T-shirt with bright orange writing) was involved in an altercation in Basingstoke and had threatened someone with a handgun.

Armed police arrested Mr Udezue at Bournemouth railway station. It later emerged it was a case of mistaken identity and he was released without charge

'The description was passed through Hampshire, Dorset and the British Transport Police and boom – a plain-clothes officer sees me sitting on the train (happily listening to my iPod and unaware of my impending doom), alerts HQ that "the gunman is on the train" (the GUNMAN??) and the Firearms Unit is deployed to Bournemouth train station to confront me. I’ve never been so traumatised in my life.'

Dorset Police have apologised for the wrongful arrest and referred the incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate.

New figures showed yesterday that the number of people stopped by police on the streets has soared by a third year on year, bringing a massive rise in form-filling for frontline officers.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice revealed yesterday that officers carried out 1.87million ‘stops’ in 2006-2007 – up from 1.4million the previous year – along with almost a million stops and searches.

In every case they had to fill in a 1ft-long form to record every detail of the encounter, including the suspect’s ethnic background.

Typically it took an officer eight minutes at the scene, and another 17 minutes of police time to process the information later.

Black people were seven times as likely to stopped as whites - although the proportion of searches ending up as arrests, 12 per cent, was identical for both.

The paperwork accompanying the use of the powers was introduced after the Stephen Lawrence case, in response to concerns that officers were disproportionately targeting black men.

The MoJ figures show that 955,000 stops and searches were carried out in 2006-2007 – the highest figure for seven years – with the most common reasons being suspicion of drugs or stolen property.