London Bridge incident: Southern Rail train catches fire

Passengers were told it was a ‘minor fault’

A Southern Rail train caught fire at London Bridge station this morning.

The incident was photographed by passenger Ben Strivens after commuters were told to disembark the train.

“When your driver says there’s a minor fault on the train and you get off to see it on fire,” he tweeted.

“London Bridge is burning down.”

The picture clearly shows flames underneath the carriage, with thick black smoke issuing from below.

Another passenger, Anthony Sanders, filmed the fire, tweeting: “Thought I could smell burning...”

The fault occurred on the 7.15am Guildford to London Bridge service, Southern Rail has confirmed.

A Southern spokesperson said: “A fire on the underside of a train carriage at London Bridge has been extinguished.

“No injuries to passengers have been reported.”

As a safety precaution, power to three platforms was turned off temporarily and some trains had to be diverted or delayed as a result.

Minor disruption is expected to continue this morning.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience to our passengers and encourage anyone whose journey was delayed by 15 minutes or more to claim Delay Repay compensation via our web site,” added Southern.

It comes after The Independent reported that a drunk man smashed his way into the driver’s cab of a German high-speed train with a fire extinguisher and demanded that the driver slow down.

The Intercity-Express (ICE) train operated by Deutsche Bahn (DB) stopped near Frankfurt after the incident on 17 March, according to federal police.

The 30-year-old unnamed man was arrested and faces an investigation into dangerous interference in rail traffic.