Thousands stuck on Tube for hours

Two thousand Tube passengers - a mixture of Christmas shoppers and Chelsea fans - were stuck on a packed train for up to two and a half hours.

Five were treated for heat exhaustion by paramedics. A sixth, a 13-year-old boy, was taken to hospital after an asthma attack.

Around 1,400 people were rescued after an hour and a half but the rest were stranded for another hour when an escape door jammed.

The "extremely heavily loaded" train stopped between Fulham Broadway and West Brompton stations at 5.30pm on Saturday due to an on-board fault.

Engineers could not get the train going. An attempt to use another train to push it to Fulham Broadway station failed because of the weight of passengers on the broken-down train, it is believed. Passengers in the first four cars of the broken-down train were then walked through on to the "rescuetrain" and taken back to West Brompton.

However, the doors to the last two cars of the stricken train were jammed shut.

The remaining passengers were led through the emergency door at the rear of their train and across the track to a third train that had been brought alongside.

An LU spokeswoman said today: "We apologise profusely for the time taken in getting everyone out. The train was extremely heavily loaded. We have launched an investigation."