Riddle of death fall from train
AN investigation has been launched after a 23-year-old student fell to his death from a fast-moving train at Pirbright.
Surrey Live
Four people have been arrested after the man, who was believed to be travelling with a group of friends to Woking, fell from the South West Trains carriage on Wednesday night.
Travellers alerted the guard and the train was stopped and the driver and guard searched unsuccessfully for the man.
Later his body was found near to Pirbright at Fox Hill Tunnel during a police search.
The two men and two women travelling with the dead man were arrested and were being questioned at a Surrey police station yesterday (Thursday).
British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman, Simon Lubin, said it was unclear how the man fell and that his death was being treated as suspicious.
"The student was travelling with four friends on the 10.57pm from Alton, in Hampshire, to Waterloo on Wednesday.
"He fell at about 11.45pm as the train approached the Pirbright junction. The train stopped after the conductor was alerted by the four companions of the 23-year-old.
"The body was later found beside the line following a search. We are assuming he died from the fall. We are treating this as a suspicious death and four people are in custody," he added.
The body of the student, who has not been named, was taken to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford where a post-mortem will be carried out.
A spokeswoman for South West Trains said: "The train has now been impounded by British Transport Police as it is being treated as a crime scene."
She said the train was an old-style slam-door train with no central locking mechanism.
Mike Hewitson, the secretary of the Rail Passengers Committee for Southern England, said the circumstances of the student's death were very rare.
He said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had carried out investigations into the trains and found fitting central locking impractical.
"Slam-door trains like these have been around for around 40 years and investigations into their safety have found them acceptable," he said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact BTP on 020 7391 5275.