A man "reciting verses from the Bible" caused passengers to force their way off a train onto the tracks this morning, causing delays of up to an hour.

The South Western Railway line into Waterloo is affected by the incident, which happened just outside Wimbledon station on the 7.40am service from Shepperton.

One passenger, Ian, said: "I specifically heard him say things about homosexuality and sex before marriage being sins and how we had to repent for our sins, the lord gave his son for our sins et cetera. I sort of zoned out a little after that as I had no interest in listening to him.

“The passengers immediately around me didn't really react. It seemed it was some people further down the carriage behind me started to panic and push and as the train was packed they caused a crush and more panic and the Chinese whispers snowballed I guess.”

He said they forced open the doors of the train while it was stopped at a red signal.

A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "We were called at 8.31am to a disturbance on board a train just outside Wimbledon station. Passengers had evacuated themselves off the train onto the tracks. We are currently investigating but there have been no arrests and there are no reported injuries."

This follows a morning of late running trains due to a points failure at Waterloo.

Delays are expected until 1pm.