Sussex rail services disrupted after police incident between Worthing and Lancing

Southern Rail said ‘all lines’ were disrupted around 7.45pm, ‘due to passengers causing a disturbance’ between Worthing and Lancing.

“Passengers onboard a train have been reported to have misused the emergency exit system,” the train company reported on Twitter.

“This is currently being investigated, and we will get trains moving as soon as possible.”

At 8pm, it was reported that the affected train had been moved and ‘can continue its journey’ but services in the area were not back up and running for long.

“Further disturbance and vandalism has been caused on the same train,” Southern reported 20 minutes later.

"Police are now in attendance and are dealing with the incident. We are hoping to get the service moving shortly.”

Have you read?: Train delays after incident near Gatwick Airport

Ticket acceptance was put in place on Stagecoach bus services between Brighton and Littlehampton and on Brighton and Hove buses between Brighton, Hove and Shoreham.

At 9pm, the passengers causing the disturbance had been ‘removed from the train’.

Southern wrote: “All services are now able to run as normal. Ticket acceptance is still in place whilst our teams work to recover our service.”

British Transport Police (BTP) confirmed that officers were called to Lancing railway station on Monday evening ‘to reports of anti-social behaviour’.

A spokesperson added: “No arrests have been made and enquiries into this incident are ongoing.”

As of 9.20pm, services were ‘no longer affected’, Southern said, adding: “We do apologise for the disruption this evening, if you journey was delayed by 15 mins or more you can claim for delay repay here.”