'ABSOLUTE CARNAGE'
ONE of the country's busiest train stations was evacuated amid rush hour Tube strike chaos this morning.
Around 700 passengers were forced out of Clapham Junction at around 9am as platforms became dangerously overcrowded.
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It comes as staff staged a 24-hour walkout on the London Underground causing other public transport services to swell.
One commuter called the overcrowding "absolute carnage" and another described it as like a "stampede" when trains arrived at platforms.
Another said that the station, where Southern and South West trains refused to stop during the rush, was having to be evacuated due to severe overcrowding for fire safety reasons.
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Learning support assistant Hugo Sugg travels daily from Queens Road Peckham to Clapham Junction to work at a nearby school.
He says there was a "lack of compassion" from staff, who herded commuters "like cattle" before forcing them out the station in a "stampede".
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Hugo, 26, said: "I got off the train on platform one, and they shut off the platform so you couldn't get to the underpass.
"The overpass had a queue system in place, but they didn't man it well so we were stuck.
"Then they shut the gate and kept us there like cattle.
"No one was moving then they just evacuated the station and cancelled all the trains.
"There were probably about 700 people there, and it wasn't unsafe until they evacuated it.
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"Then it was like a stampede - they had no organisation and the staff showed little, if any, compassion.
"It's horrendous and disgusting to think they're allowed to get away with this.
"I got evils from people boarding my own train."
Gabriella Sylvia tweeted: "Clapham Junction is a very similar scene to when the Titanic is sinking and they're trying to get everyone onto the lifeboats."
Nathan Eaton added: "Absolute farce at Clapham Junction - forcing us from uncrowded platforms into crowded tunnels. We were fine on the platforms."
The station was reopened at about 9.45am.
Tube stations across the capital were closed and only a limited service was running on eight of the 11 lines because of the 24-hour walkout over jobs and ticket office closures.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) walked out at 6pm on Sunday night and were said to be solidly supporting the action, as they mounted picket lines.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the strike was "completely unnecessary."
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