Parsons Green explosion: Police evacuate homes near tube station after 'terror attack' on train carriage

Residents told to leave houses and school placed on lockdown after explosion on underground carriage

Police have evacuated homes near Parsons Green tube station (REUTERS)

Police have evacuated houses around Parsons Green underground station after an explosion on a rush-hour Tube carriage.

Residents of all homes within 100 metres of the station were told to leave as officers extended a cordon around the scene of the suspected terror attack.

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The Aethrieus Temple school, close to the station, was placed on lockdown with pupils kept in a hall.

Some parents gathered at the police cordon to wait for their children.

Gautam Krishna, 42, told The Independent: "They have locked the girls in the school hall, apparently police are doing a sweep."

Police told people to avoid the area around the station, where a bomb disposal unit was on the scene.

London Fire Brigade sent six engines and 50 firefighters and London Ambulance Service said it sent "multiple resources" including its hazardous area response team.

"Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries," a spokesman for the service said.

Kate Capilupi, 35, was waiting to get back inside her home with her baby son.

"I was walking my daughters to school when we heard the news," she said.

"I got back home and there was a police officer at my front door.

"He told me there had been an incident on the tube and I couldn't go in."

Witnesses said children were among those caught up in the panic as the explosion caused a stampede at the station.

The Metropolitan Police is treating the blast, at 8.20am, as a terror attack.

"It is too early to confirm the cause of the fire, which will be subject to the investigation that is now underway by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command," the force said in a statement.

“At present we are aware of a number of people who have suffered injuries.

“The station remains cordoned off and we are advising people to avoid the area.”

Photos taken inside the District line train show a white plastic bucket inside a Lidl supermarket shopping bag. Flames and what appear to be wires are visible.

Witnesses said commuters fled the station in a panic, while some passengers were led to safety along tracks by firefighters.