Tube terror over drunk civil servant's Tube hoax

A drunk top civil servant had to be protected from angry Tube passengers after telling them he was a Muslim and had a bomb.

Ministry of Justice official George McFaul, a survivor of an IRA bombing in his native Ulster, warned his fellow commuters that they had a minute left to live before his rucksack device detonated.

He then repeated: "It is going to go off in 60 seconds."

One terrified woman traveller immediately pulled the emergency lever to alert the driver, Southwark crown court heard today.

Fortunately, the Northern line train, which had been stuck in a tunnel at the time because of signal problems, then started moving and pulled into King's Cross station.

As the doors opened everyone fled, leaving the 43-year-old "occasional binge-drinker" still in his seat.

He was immediately surrounded by station staff who took one look at the state he was in and decided there was no danger.

One of them then searched his rucksack, finding nothing more threatening than a paperback and a mobile phone.

Station supervisor Michael McKenna later told police the passengers - who were still on the platform - were "angry and I had to keep them apart from him".

McFaul, of Walthamstow, was jailed for a year after pleading guilty to one count of communicating false information, on 6 December last year.