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By News Editor Declan Wilkes Footage has emerged on YouTube of an elderly man being verbally abused by a London Underground worker. According to witness, Johnathan McDonald, the man's arm had become stuck in the doors of a Central Line train at Holborn station yesterday. Tube staff are then seen reacting furiously after he tells them what happened. A pony-tailed staff member called Ian, shouts at the man to "go upstairs and talk to the police" as he tries to board the next train and calls him a "jumped up little git." He then tries to physically stop him from boarding, standing in the way of the doors, calling him a little girl and yelling that the train will not leave with him on it. The man ignores the staff member who then says off camera: "let's sling him under a train." Suspended He has been suspended from duty and his union, believed to the Rail, Maritime and Transport union who have yet to comment. A Transport for London spokesperson said: “We are appalled by the scene captured in this video and will investigate thoroughly and urgently what took place and what led to it. We do not tolerate members of the public being abusive to our staff but neither will we tolerate members of our staff abusing members of the public.”
Commenters on YouTube said the staff member "had his P45 in the post". Mayor Boris Johnson said via Twitter that he has ordered TfL to investigate. McDonald, who took the footage has made an offical complaint via the TfL website. Here is how the blogger says events unfolded: "We all thought the train was heading further east but actually, for reasons we shall never know, the train was terminating at Holborn and we were ushered out onto the platform by two (shouting) staff in Underground uniforms. The elderly man was slow to get off in the mad rush, hence the entrapment. A few people around called to staff to open the door again so he could be released. About 30 seconds later the doors opened again and he removed his arm. I watched as he calmly relayed his experience to the staff member (who was called Ian by the way). Ian didn’t think it was a problem – in fact, he was furious that the guy had mentioned it at all, especially as the guy was standing close to the track. After a while, Ian started shouting at the guy to “stand back there is a fucking train approaching“. The elderly guy quietly questioned why Ian had to swear (as did several other passengers). Ian literally screamed in this guys face (and I quote): “because there is a fucking train approaching and I need to make sure nobody is over the fucking yellow line“. The elderly guy stood his ground – admittedly the wrong side of the yellow line (which was hard to see as there were hundreds of stranded people on the platform). Ian then told the guy that he wasn’t allowed to get on the next train and had to “come upstairs to speak to the police“. That was when I pulled out my video camera." Click 'video' to see the disturbing footage
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