Two men arrested after fight sparks ‘stampede’ at Bank Station
Two men have been arrested after a fight at Monument Station which sparked “massive panic” and led to the evacuation of Monument and Bank stations.
The British Transport Police (BTP) said: “Two men have been arrested on suspicion of affray after a fight at Monument Station this morning.”
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A fire alarm was set off during the fight and Bank and Monument stations were evacuated with armed police attending the scene.
BTP said: “During the fight a fire alarm was pressed and the station, and Bank station, were evacuated. Both have since reopened.”
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In an earlier tweet BTP said: “There are no reports of weapons involved and no arrests at this stage, enquiries continue.
Trains on the District, Circle, Northern and Central line services stopped calling at the station shortly before 9am.
The Docklands Light Railway was also part suspended between Shadwell and Bank.
“No service between Bank and Shadwell while we respond to a fire alarm activation,” the DLR tweeted.
Twitter users said the station was evacuated in panic after a fight broke out on the Central Line.
“Massive panic; people running and being trampled on,” said one Twitter user, Alex Southern.
A TfL staff member at Bank said the station was evacuated after a fight between two passengers. “There was panic,” they told City A.M.
The station remained closed “for about 20 minutes” the staff member said.
According to a City PM distributor at the station there were rumours that one of the participants in the fight had a gun, but the BTP said there were no weapons involved in the incident.
Commuter Gabriel Solomon, said he spotted “armed police running into Bank station”.
BTP confirmed to City PM that armed police did attend the incident as first responders after staff reported the fight at 8.54am.
A spokesperson added: “In the middle of the fight the fire alarm was triggered which caused the evacuation of the station.”
“Enquiries revealed there had been a fight. During the fight the alarm was pressed. The station was evacuated as a precaution but has since reopened,” a BTP statement read.
“Due to its close proximity, the fire alarm at Bank station was also triggered and the station was evacuated but has also since reopened. No weapons are reported to have been seen during the fight and no arrests have been made.”
One shocked commuter asked TfL “what on earth happened”.
“I got off and Bank station and was told to run to the exit to monument, everyone was running and pushing, it was horrible,” she wrote online.
Another commuter said the panic was “like something from a horror film” and said they had “never been more scared in my life”.
However, another Twitter user, actress Celia Learmonth, said the evacuation was calm and handled well by TfL staff.
“Contrary to what you may read online, we did not ‘run for our lives’ at #Bankstation this morning,” she said. “TfL staff were calm and clear in instructing and guiding us to leave the station.”
“It was hardly the stampede in the gorge in Lion King,” she added.
Journalist Simon Lock, who was evacuated from the station this morning, told City PM that it was a “very strange, surreal” experience.
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“I got off the train and there was quite a long backlog of people and there was an announcement going over and over again saying something like, ‘this is an emergency announcement, can everyone leave the station,’ over and over repeatedly.
“They shut off the escalators going up and down so everyone was having to walk up the stairs…along the sides there were quite nervous looking staff in high-vis directing people,” he said.
“It felt very strange, I got out and there were police sirens,” he added.