Woman pushed off platform

These pictures show the horrific moment when a woman was pushed onto the tracks at a railway station and beaten around the head.

One picture in the sequence shows the man and woman on the tracks as he viciously beats her. His 51-year-old victim needed 30 stitches to head wounds following the late-night attack at Sutton Common station, south London.

British Transport Police today released these images of the attacker, described as a stocky white man aged about 30, in an appeal for information.

A police spokesman said the attack, at 11.05pm last Thursday, was unprovoked.

The thug had attempted to speak to the woman, but she turned away. Moments later he pushed his victim onto the track and attacked her, fleeing up the tracks and into a tunnel only after she screamed.

"This was a horrific attack on a woman alone on the platform," the spokesman said. "There was nobody else there at the time." The woman was rescued by members of the public who had heard her screams.

Her attacker had short dark hair and was clean-shaven with a missing tooth. Anyone with information should contact British Transport Police on 020 7391 5275.