Oxford graduate pinned by armed police over mistaken identity: 'I've never been so traumatised in my life'

An Oxford graduate mistakenly held face-down at gunpoint by police at a busy train station has described his ordeal as a 'bad dream'.

A plainclothes officer raised the alarm after seeing Nzube Udezue on a train because he believed he fitted the description of a wanted offender.

In fact, the 21-year-old had done nothing wrong. But as he stepped off the train at Bournemouth station, he found himself pinned to the ground by armed police.

The episode bore terrifying echoes of the Jean Charles De Menezes case three years ago, when police hunting the 21/7 bomb plotters shot an innocent man dead at Stockwell tube station in South London. This time, no shots were fired.

Mr Udezue, a computer science graduate and hip-hop musician, said on his online blog: 'I've never been so traumatised in my life.

'It took me a couple of seconds to realise it was me all those guns were aimed at. I felt like I'd stepped off the train and into a really bad dream.'

The incident ended with him 'lying face down, handcuffed, with several sub-machine guns pointed at me'.

He had been listening to his iPod before stepping off a train from Southampton on Saturday evening to be confronted by the officers, who ordered: 'Get down!'

He was told to lie down and put his hands out. Reliving the incident on his blog, he wrote: 'I'm shocked, confused, scared and embarrassed all at the same time.

'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, machine guns, bullet-proof vests, police dogs and all.'

Mr Udezu  - who lives in Bournemouth with his father Emmanuel, a doctor and fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and his mother Chika, a journalist - was then dragged to a toilet cubicle.

Frozen: Mr Uzube is forced to spread his arms and legs as a policeman points a gun

Terrified: Police check the Oxford graduate for a suspected firearm

He was handcuffed and searched for weapons before being taken to a police station. 'It didn't take them too long to realise they got the wrong guy,' he said.

Mr Udezue has since learned that someone matching his descriptio  - a black male in a dark T- shirt with bright orange writing - had threatened a victim with a handgun in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

The description of the offender had been passed through Hampshire, Dorset and the British Transport Police.

Mr Udezue had been wearing a black T-shirt which bore the slogan 'I'm Down with Zuby. Are You?' - Zuby is his nickname.

The musician had been in Southampton to sell the T-shirts and his own CDs.

Mr Udezue, who starts work for the management consultancy Accenture next month, later managed to joke: 'And to think I was going to wear a blue T-shirt.'

Dorset Police have apologised and referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.