Parsons Green explosion witness: 'I saw woman with her hair burned off'

Man who fled from Tube amid reported terror attack said passengers were 'screaming and shouting' amid chaos

Police vehicles line the street near Parsons Green tube station (Reuters)

A man who was caught up in the London Tube terror attack has told how he saw injured passengers at the scene, including a woman with her hair and eyebrows burned away.

Greg Hirsz also saw a man with a cut on his forehead after a "stampede" of hundreds of passengers fleeing the explosion on the packed train at Parsons Green station.

Some 22 people have been reported injured after what was described as a "fireball" from a suspected homemade bomb tore through the carriage on the District Line train.

Images shared online showed a bucket with wires trailing from it smouldering inside the train after the incident just after 8am.

Police later confirmed that an "improvised explosive device" was detonated as the service made its way from Wimbledon to Edgware Road.

They have cordoned off the area around the station in south-west London and are treating the incident as a terror attack.

Mr Hirsz, who was on his way to work aboard the tube, described the chaos in the immediate aftermath.

Many of the injuries are believed to have been suffered when hundreds of passengers fled from the train to exit the station amid "shouting and screaming".

Mr Hirsz, 35, said: “I was on the Tube and everyone got off in a stampede and started running.

“At first I thought it was somebody with a knife attacking people.

“In the end I got out and left and went for the exit.

"I didn’t see smoke or anything but there was screaming and shouts and people talking about an explosion.

"Outside the station, it took me about five minutes to get out, there was people crying and shaking.

“I saw one woman with her hair burned at the sides, and her eyebrows.

“She was in tears and someone was consoling her.

“There was also a man with a cut on his forehead. He was bleeding and someone was holding a handkerchief to it.

“There was a lot of crying outside and fire brigades came within about five minutes.”

The Met’s assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, said most of the casualties suffered “flash burns”.

Police had “many urgent enquiries ongoing” and were working with MI5 intelligence experts, he added.

Reports claimed the explosive device was attached to a timer.

Prime Minister Theresa May said on Twitter: “My thoughts are with those injured at Parsons Green and emergency services who are responding bravely to this terrorist incident.”