Oxford Circus: Man fighting for life after falling onto tracks at busy London Tube station
A man is fighting for life after he fell under a train at a busy Tube station in central London.
Oxford Circus station was evacuated during the evening rush hour on Wednesday as emergency services descended on the scene.
The man, whose age is not known, was rushed to hospital with leg injuries and remains there in a critical condition. He is believed to have suffered a "medical episode", police said.
The Victoria line was initially suspended between Victoria and Seven Sisters. Severe delays were reported across the whole line into the evening.
Avoid Oxford circus station...lots of police around pic.twitter.com/QjTCXMny7C
— Hemal Khanderia (@HemalKhanderia)
Retired England cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent said the man fell under a train just metres in front of her.
She said platform was the "most packed" she had seen in 35 years of living in London.
"As the train was coming in he was at the very front... it looked like he swivelled and lost his balance, it looked like a fall", she said.
"He sort of fell on his back. The way it looked to me he could have almost froze."
1. I cannot believe what I have just witnessed. Absolutely horric scenes at Oxford Circus and I just watched a man fall under the tube 2m in front of me. @TfL this is UNACCEPTABLE that in one of the most sophisticated cities in the world stations are allowed to get this RAMMED ..
— Ebony Rainford-Brent (@ejrainfordbrent)
Ms Rainford-Brent added on Twitter that people were "pushing & shoving each other & putting life at risk just trying to get home from work."
She said the man who fell appeared to be in his mid-to-late 20s.
Another witness described hearing "calls on the platform for doctors" and later seeing a "huge number of ambulances and emergency services" at the scene.
Something serious has happened at Oxford Circus at least four fire engines and incident response vans plus un marked cars with sirens and multiple ambulances
— Kelza (@ItsTheKel)
A number of passengers reported being stuck on trains as services ground to a halt.
British Transport Police said in a statement: "We were called to Oxford Circus earlier this evening to a report of a casualty on the track.
"It’s believed a man suffered a medical episode and fell onto the tracks. He is in a critical condition in hospital.
"Thank you for your patience while we responded to this incident."
A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: “We were called today at 5.33pm to reports of a person injured at Oxford Circus underground station.
“We sent a number of resources to the scene including an incident response officer and our hazardous area response team. We also dispatched a trauma team from London’s Air Ambulance.
“Crews treated a man at the scene with leg injuries and took him to a major trauma centre by road.”