Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Elderly woman injured after Tube passenger slides down middle of escalator and crashes into her

British Transport Police have launched an investigation after the 70-year-old was taken to hospital following the incident

Caroline Mortimer
Friday 15 April 2016 18:45 EDT
Comments
The incident happened at North Greenwich Underground Station at 7am on Wednesday
The incident happened at North Greenwich Underground Station at 7am on Wednesday (REX Features)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A woman has been taken to hospital after being hit by a passenger sliding down an escalator at a busy Tube station.

British Transport Police have launched an investigation after the 70-year-old suffered injuries to her arm just after 7am on Thursday at North Greenwich Underground station.

Two ambulance crews attended and treated two patients, taking one woman to hospital, a spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said.

British Transport Police said: "Our officers were called to North Greenwich London Underground station on Thursday 14 April following reports of a person injured. The call came into police at 7.07am.

"Officers attended and found a 70-year-old woman with injuries to her arm. Officers will be speaking to another woman in connection with incident in due course."

The woman was sent “flying to her knees” and was “badly hurt” as a result of the impact, a witness told the London Evening Standard.

Paul Wolverton, 52, told the newspaper: "The escalator was stopped and the older lady was at the bottom of the escalator on all fours and could not get up, she was badly hurt.

"The younger girl was crying because she had injured her hand and wrist and was bleeding. She was being comforted by her friends.

"There was an Underground worker standing over the women who could not get up.

"She was trying to calm the situation down because an eyewitness had seen what had happened and were saying that the young woman should be arrested, but the guard was saying it was an accident."

A Transport for London spokeswoman said: "Safety is our top priority and pranks like this are dangerous for not only those involved but also to other customers.

"We have frequent PA announcements reminding customers to be careful when using escalators, and we also run safety campaigns throughout the year to encourage customers to take care whilst travelling on our network."

Additional reporting by PA

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in