Three brave souls risked their lives to help a woman trapped in the King’s Cross Tube rails.
The brave men attempted to lift the woman to safety after she apparently veered off the platform on her blue mobility scooter just three minutes before a Victoria line train was scheduled to arrive at around 1:45pm on Saturday (April 29).
With the train approaching, a witness described how a bystander triggered an alarm, causing the busy station to be evacuated. Staff from Transport for London and British Transport Police rushed onto the Northbound platform to save the woman. According to BTP, the woman was brought to the hospital with “potentially life-changing” injuries.
“I was on the platform and there was a disabled woman on her mobility scooter with her daughter who looked to be around 18 or 19,” Omar explained. Everyone was anticipating the arrival of the train. I didn’t see her go in, but I heard screams and looked to my left to see her fall onto the tracks. Her daughter let out a bloodcurdling scream similar to ‘Mum’. At this point, everyone began screaming.”
Omar claimed that one of the men was ‘zapped’ by a rail before hauling himself out to be rescued.
As passengers panicked, the 25-year-old watched as the daredevils “instantly” jumped onto the tracks, despite the arrivals display warning that a train was due in minutes. Bystanders began shouting to shift the injured woman’s foot so it wouldn’t be crushed by the oncoming carriages as she lay upside down and appeared wedged between the pit and the rails.
“Everyone was screaming, just put her foot down so that when the train comes, she’ll be completely beneath,” Omar explained. “The daughter screamed, ‘That’s my mother,’ and a woman tried to tell her to take deep breaths.” One person even went back in to try to reposition her so she could get out. But they couldn’t pull her out since the train was approaching.”
In the midst of the turmoil, Omar reported that one of the heroes was “zapped” by an electrified rail and had to be dragged out before collapsing on the platform. He then described how, with the panic alarm activated, a TfL statement blared over the platform, asking everyone to evacuate, as transport employees and BTP officers raced in with the train seemingly stalled in the tunnel.
Omar described himself as “in shock” as he checked on the men, discovering one covered in the woman’s blood. “One guy got zapped and wasn’t saying much,” he explained. ‘Fk, fk, there was no way to get her out,’ said the other guy with a Northern accent. ‘There’s nothing else you could have done,’ I said.
‘Mate, her hair and blood were all sticking to my feet,’ he said.” It was literally written on his shoes. Hair and blood. ‘I’m fine, I’ll be fine,’ he said. However, her daughter’. ‘You were very brave,’ we said. He couldn’t really speak because he was in pieces.”
Omar said he stayed on the platform to warn the men if a train approached the tunnel, but it never arrived. “I think they managed to stop it because the alarm was pressed,” he explained. “However, the platform did not state that it would not appear. We were all waiting for BTP when he came racing in.”
The poor woman ended up slipping in headfirst, her foot protruding near the barrier (Image: Omar).
He also claimed that there wasn’t enough time to get the woman out without further injuring her. “I don’t think there was a clear way to pull her out,” he explained. “Getting her out without causing any further damage was a tall order in that time frame.”
Omar, who was on his way to meet friends in Highbury and Islington, was so frightened by the occurrence that he had a panic attack and ended up hyperventilating in the back of an ambulance after leaving the station “looking like a madman.” “I’ve just been reliving it in my head,” he told MyLondon. It was the daughter’s reaction that made it genuine.”
According to a BTP spokesperson, they were called to Kings Cross Underground station at 1:40pm on Saturday. Colleagues from the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service also attended,” they continued, “and a person was taken to hospital with what are believed to be potentially life-changing injuries.” The incident’s circumstances have been reviewed, and it is not being treated as suspicious.
