‘Doomsday preacher’ causes chaos on London Tube after terrified commuters take him literally

Hundreds of thousands of London commuters experienced major disruption during rush hour on Monday morning after passengers fled from a train and spilt on to the track in terror of a “Doomsday preacher” who was quoting the Old Testament.

The incident, which took place at about 8.30am just outside Wimbledon station on a South Western Railway train running from Shepperton to Waterloo, forced Network Rail to switch off power in the area, causing long delays.

Ian O’Sullivan, 42, who was in the same carriage as the preacher, said the man with a rucksack began reading extracts from the Old Testament, when the train stopped at a red light outside the southwest London rail station.

“He was quite well spoken and calm,” he said. “He said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to talk to you about something and that something is the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He’s here to heal your sins. The Bible tells you that homosexuality is a sin and sex before marriage is a sin. You need to repent’.”

Other passengers said the man referred to “doomsday” and the afterlife.

O’Sullivan, a marketing consultant, said he did not find the man threatening, but people started pushing and shoving, with another passenger warning the man that he was scaring people.