Moment hundreds of Notting Hill Carnival revellers SQUEEZE onto jam-packed Tube at dangerously over-crowded Oxford Circus station as they head to west London for two-day party

• Videos have revealed severe overcrowding on platform at Oxford Circus station
• Revellers were trying to travel towards Notting Hill Gate on Monday at 2.30pm
• Passengers who failed to get on were seen pushing fellow travellers inside doors
• Witnesses said it was ‘miracle no one was killed or injured’ as each train pulled in

Passengers were shoved onto London Underground trains amid mass congestion in extraordinary scenes during the Notting Hill Carnival, MailOnline can reveal today.

Videos have revealed severe overcrowding on the platform at Oxford Circus station on Monday at 2.30pm as revellers tried to travel towards Notting Hill Gate.

Passengers who failed to get on board were seen pushing fellow travellers inside the doors in scenes more akin to those often seen at stations in China and Japan.

Witnesses said it was a ‘miracle no one was killed or injured’ with an estimated 1,000 passengers standing right up to the platform edge as each train pulled in.

Riders were said to have been ‘climbing on top of each other’ while children and babies were also involved in the melee as people tried to make it to the festival.

It comes amid mass criticism of the festival after a chaotic weekend that saw more than 200 people arrested, 74 police officers injured and a 21-year-old man killed. 

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, today said an officer had been ‘sexually assaulted by numerous males’ and called for the event to be stopped.

Huge numbers of passengers try to board a Central line train at Oxford Circus on Monday

People struggle to get on board the Central line train on the London Underground on Monday

He told LBC: ‘The tragedy to this is 98 per cent of people who go there are law-abiding and want to enjoy themselves, but there is an element, and I am fed up of no one talking about it, of people who go for one reason – to cause harm to others. 

‘That is not stopping, has never stopped and we need to say enough is enough. We cannot have a situation where every year, the bank holiday weekend I discuss why there are so many of my colleagues seriously injured or assaulted.’

He added that detectives seized dozens of knives over the course of Sunday and Monday and stopped up to 300 fights, adding: ‘This is not a fun-loving weekend.

‘I think it should be stopped. I think it should be in a private area like Hyde Park where it can be fenced off, people can be controlled, checked coming in and out.’

Severe overcrowding on the platform at Oxford Circus station in Central London on Monday

Passengers try to board the Central line train as many travel to the Notting Hill Carnival

Witness J. Clegg filmed the Tube video on the way to the carnival while changing at Oxford Circus from the Bakerloo line after travelling from Elephant and Castle.

He told MailOnline today that he had to wait for nearly ten trains to go past before he could get on, as he watched passengers’ faces being ‘squashed in the glass’.

He said: ‘There was no room to move. I’ve never seen an underground that chaotic. Not in England – maybe in countries like India, but not here. It was overflowing.

‘I came down then I had to wait for about seven to nine Undergrounds to go past until I could get on one, and then my face was squashed against the door.

Witnesses said it was a ‘miracle no one was killed or injured’ during the fracas on Monday

Passengers who failed to get on board were seen pushing fellow travellers inside the doors

‘When I was on there, there were people climbing on top of each other, layering up like sandwiches – and babies and children in prams.

Mr Clegg estimated that there were ‘close to 1,000 people’ waiting for each train and pointed out that their feet were on the cusp of the edge of the platform.

He added: ‘It just takes one person to push and you get 20 to 30 people on the track. It’s a miracle no one was killed or injured.’

He said announcements were made urging people to move away from the edge of the platform when the Tube was about to leave, and telling them not to board.

Huge numbers of passengers try to board a Central line train at Oxford Circus on Monday

Riders were said to have been ‘climbing on top of each other’ to get on board the trains

But Mr Clegg added that staff were unable to anything to stop the congestion, despite police at the end of the escalators shouting to people move along.

The footage will likely prompt concerns at Transport for London (TfL) which closes some stations and makes others exit-only in an attempt to manage crowds safely. 

Six Underground stations were closed or partially shut – those being Ladbroke Grove, Holland Park, Royal Oak, Notting Hill Gate, Latimer Road and Westbourne Park.

Up to two million people were expected to have attended the carnival over Sunday and Monday, and they also had to contend with a 48-hour bus strike in the capital. 

Forensics officers comb the scene in Ladbroke Grove yesterday after Takayo Nembhard, 21, a rapper from Bristol, died after being stabbed on the final day of the Notting Hill Carnival

Metropolitan Police walk through the streets during the Notting Hill Carnival on Monday

Police patrol the streets at the Notting Hill Carnival in London on Sunday evening

But the carnival was also once again marred by violence, with 21-year-old rapper Takayo Nembhard murdered on Ladbroke Grove on Monday evening.

He was one of seven stabbing victims at the festival, while 74 Metropolitan Police officers suffered injuries including broken arms, legs and minor knife wounds.

Two women police officers were sexually assaulted – with one of them grabbed around the neck and kissed and a second surrounded by a group of men.

Police said 209 arrests had been made at the carnival, including 46 for assault, 36 for possession of drugs and 33 for possession of an offensive weapon.

TfL said it was looking into the videos, and MailOnline has requested a comment.

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