Commuters stepped in to halt a violent attack on board a London Overground train during this morning's rush hour, witnesses said.
A fight between a man and a woman was said to have broken out on board the 9:12 London overground service from Chingford to Liverpool Street as it approaced Hackney Downs station.
Jessica Browne, 25, was on her way to work when she witnessed the incident.
Ms Browne, who works for the CPS, told the Evening Standard: “I saw this man attack this woman, trying to punch her, grabbing her clothes.
“She tried to push him away and a few people tried to restrain him.
“He turned round and had gone for the guy who was shouting at him to stop.
“He had hold of his head and started smashing it into the train doors.
“There was a baby in a pram right where he was doing that so a man pushed him back into the aisle.”
Ms Browne said the train reached Hackney Downs and sat at the station for “six or seven minutes” before staff came to intervene.
While the train was at the station, she said the woman who had first been attacked asked the violent man to “give me my headphones back.”
She told the Standard: “He said no and started ripping them to pieces.
“He then jumped up onto the seats shouting ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you, you’re dead.”
Ms Browne said the two did not appear to know each other, and the incident seemed to have been a “random attack.”
She described the man, who was in his fifties, as “really skinny with long scruffy hair and a big beard.”
She said: “It looked like a lot of people were scared, a lot of people did get off the train and tried to move away.”
Several commuters tweeted about the incident, with one saying: “Really violent man on train at Hackney downs punching woman restrained by passengers for 5 minutes.”
Another said the fight spilled out from the train on to the platform. She said “They fell out of the train fighting. Only then did TfL staff show up.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">There is a fight on Chingford (9.12) to Liverpool Street - now approaching Hackney Downs! Seriously too much violence on <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/TfL" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3164126-https://twitter.com/TfL" data-vars-event-id="c23">@TfL</a> overground — Selina S (@selinathinks) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/selinathinks/status/691554124115136512" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3164126-https://twitter.com/selinathinks/status/691554124115136512" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 25, 2016</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/LDNOverground" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3164126-https://twitter.com/LDNOverground" data-vars-event-id="c23">@LDNOverground</a> Very violent man on train at Hackney Downs punching woman restrained by passengers for over 5 minutes. Where were staff? — Jonathan Dean (@JonathanDean_) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/JonathanDean_/status/691559570091700224" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3164126-https://twitter.com/JonathanDean_/status/691559570091700224" data-vars-event-id="c23">January 25, 2016</a>
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “Our officers were alerted to a report of an altercation on board a train at Hackney Downs station.
“The call came into police at 9.35am on Monday, 25 January.
“BTP officers alongside colleagues from Metropolitan Police Service attended and spoke to a man regarding the incident.
“Anyone with any information should contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016 quoting reference 120 of 25/01/16.”
