Stranded commuter sexually assaulted whereas stranded for hours on Elizabeth line from Reading to London | EUROtoday

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A commuter was sexually assaulted whereas trapped on board a stranded Elizabeth line prepare for hours on Thursday evening, police have mentioned.

Thousands of commuters have been subjected to a hellish ordeal on after harm to overhead wires in west London introduced Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express companies to a halt.

The delay was in comparison with a wartime evacuation, with passengers taking to social media to share footage of them sitting in darkness and lugging baggage alongside prepare tracks.

One passenger shared her expertise of being “stranded” on the Elizabeth line and mentioned passengers have been made conscious of arrests for “sexual touching”.

In the video posted to X, an officer is heard saying the prepare had been additional delayed “because someone decided that they wanted to touch someone up”.

The British Transport police confirmed the incident and mentioned a person had been arrested.

A spokesperson mentioned: “While responding to the incident at Paddington station on 7 December officers on scene were made aware of reports of a sexual assault. The assault was reported to have taken place on the Elizabeth line at around 8.30pm.

“A man was arrested and later released. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.”

The rush hour service lurched to a cease on Thursday evening, with passengers reporting being “drip-fed” info through the lengthy hours caught onboard.

Eventually, the battery backup operating the prepare’s heating and light-weight companies ran out, and passengers have been left in darkness for one more hour and a half till they have been evacuated.

Engineers labored by means of the evening to get two of the 4 strains serving Paddington open for electrical trains, however commuters on Friday morning nonetheless confronted delays of as much as 90 minutes.

Singer James Blunt and Countdown’s Rachel Riley have been among the many unfortunate folks onboard.

Blunt took a extra light-hearted strategy to the chaos and mentioned: “Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine”, whereas Riley wrote: “Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we’re getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!”

Passengers have been instructed they’d be evacuated to the close by North Police Depot after which reportedly provided taxis to their ultimate vacation spot.

A Network Rail spokesman mentioned: “We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened.”

Anyone with info on the alleged assault is requested to contact the British Transport Police on 61016 or 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 612 of 07/12/23.