By James HoreRAIL passengers looked on in horror as a woman was killed when she was involved in a collision with a train.The incident happened at about 2.

By James Hore

RAIL passengers looked on in horror as a woman was killed when she was involved in a collision with a train.

The incident happened at about 2.30pm yesterday as a Norwich-bound One train passed platform two at North railway station in Colchester.

Some witnessed claimed to have seen the woman apparently leaning down to pick up her bag shortly before the collision.

The platform was cleared and passengers remained in their carriages as emergency services attended the scene and British Transport Police recovered the body of the woman.

Inspector Bob Munn, of British Transport Police, said it would be for the coroner to decide what had caused the woman's death, but added it did not appear to be suspicious.

“The lady was struck by the train coming into platform two. There was nobody else in the vicinity and she was on her own,” he added.

“There does not seem to be any cause that would have resulted in her falling. She died instantly.

“Some of the platform staff saw the incident and were very shaken - the staff will be offered counselling, which is the standard policy when something like this happens. They have good after-care available to them.”

The woman has not yet been named, but who is believed to have been middle-aged.

The incident caused some disruption to mainline rail services, but trains were running again by just after 3.15pm.

A spokesman for One said two trains had had to be cancelled as a result of the incident, but services had returned to normal by the evening rush-hour.

“The main train which was delayed was the 1.30pm from London - which was the one behind the train that struck the person - and that was for about an hour,” he added.

“There were other delays of about 45 minutes and we had to cancel two London to Norwich trains.”

james.hore@eadt.co.uk