A tube passenger caused chaos across London last night by delaying four major underground lines after ‘walking down a tunnel to receive a lost phone’.
The busy District, Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines were all suspended or had major delays sparking mayhem for Londoners in rush hour.
A trespasser was on the track at Aldgate East station which caused severe delays until midnight, Transport for London told MailOnline.
Footage has since emerged on social media shows two women exiting from out-of-bounds tunnels at the station.
The woman jumped onto the track to pick up her mobile phone after dropping it at Aldgate East station
A TfL spokesperson confirmed to the MailOnline that the power on the track needed to be turned off for the trespasser’s safety.
‘Once the power has been turned off, the electricity takes a while to come back on and get started up again.
‘Because of the way signalling works, trains all along the lines were backlogged causing severe delays from 5.47pm for the rest of the night’ they said.
They added that station staff have retrieval devices to catch any items that are lost on the track and ‘people should stay away from the track at all times. If you drop something, please get in touch with station staff who will be able to assist you’.
As a result of the trespassing severe delays were reported on all four lines and there was no service on the lines eastbound from Moorgate.
In a now deleted video posted on Twitter, one of the women appeared to be arguing with station workers and jumping onto the track before storming into the tunnel in a furious manner.
Witnesses have speculated that the woman dropped her phone on the track and got into an argument with station staff.
When they refused to retrieve the dropped phone, she went onto the track to get it herself.
Tfl were forced to shut down all electricity for the trespassers safety causing severe delays from 5.47pm and for the rest of the night. A normal service resumed this morning
Twitter user Alex Sheers wrote ‘[Trespassers were] two girls on the eastbound platform! One sounded very drunk and the other was trying to stop her.. but kept running off and on!
‘Girl one ran onto the track and girl two tried to stop her! But kept shouting and screaming, then came out and onto the platform twice and twice returned to the tunnel! She was screaming about her parents also…alcohol def involved [sic].’
Social media users who said they were at the scene claimed to see a fracas between two women
A British Transport Police spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We were called to Aldgate East station at around 5.45pm on Thursday January 18, following reports of a woman on the tracks.
‘Officers attended and a woman was detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act and taken to a place of safety.’
Social media users took to Twitter to express their frustration at the delays.
One Twitter user wrote ‘Now a person on the track at Aldgate East. For Christ’s sake does it ever end? Can I just get home on time for once.’
Kate Bevan added ‘Hello, person trespassing on the track in the vicinity of Aldgate East: everyone trying to get home on the District and Circle Lines would like a chat with you about your life choices.’
Charlotte Ponting said ‘Thanks to the girls running up the tracks at Aldgate East it’s just taken me an hour and half to get home’.