Discovery of body disrupts Underground network

Commuters faced delays during yesterday morning's rush hour after a grisly discovery disrupted two London Underground lines.

The Circle Line was suspended and there were severe delays on the District Line after a body was found in a tunnel between Notting Hill Gate and Bayswater.

A spokesman for Transport for London said a maintenance patrol had come across the body, which was later identified as that of a 38-year-old man from West London, at 2.30am. "We are assisting the police investigation, which is now under way," the spokesman said.

British Transport Police said his injuries suggested that he had been struck by a train.

A spokeswoman said his death was not being treated as suspicious and last night the victim's family had not yet been informed.

"The incident is being treated as unexplained," the police spokeswoman said.

Elsewhere over-running engineering works led to delays on the Metropolitan Line and hundreds of passengers were held up by a broken-down train on the Jubilee Line.

The RMT union said the Tube system was, "lurching from crisis to crisis". Bob Crow, the union's general secretary, blamed a combination of "mismanagement and financial cuts" for the disruption to London Underground in recent weeks.