Businesswoman Thrown on Tracks Becomes Heroine of Middle England

The men made obscene gestures as she walked past them shortly after 7am, a police source told The Times. “She turned round and told them to grow up, and they pushed her. She stumbled backwards and fell on to the track. We don’t think they meant to push her on there. They were as surprised as she was.”

Audrey Hescombe, who commutes from Farningham Road, said: “The platform was packed, as it always is at that time. I saw men smoking on the platform on Monday but didn’t say anything. The woman was braver than me and had simply asked them to put out their cigarettes.”

Another witness said: “A scuffle broke out and she was shoved on to the tracks, then a Metropolitan Police officer who was off duty but on his way to work chased the two but they ran off the platform via an exit and managed to escape.

“There were definitely broken bones but she was more in shock than anything. Once she was on the platform we couldn’t move her, she was in such a state.”

Mrs Buchanan, whose left wrist was heavily bandaged and in a sling, was visibly shaken and upset yesterday afternoon. Supported by Richard Teare, a friend who held her right hand as she spoke from her home in Horton Kirby, she said quietly: “I just feel I’m lucky to be alive. It could have been a lot worse than it is and I’m just shocked by the whole experience.”

Another neighbour who also sat with Mrs Buchanan for some time yesterday said: “She’s well but still very shaken – we all are.”

Mrs Buchanan, who moved out of London to Kent in 2004, has a registered company called Lin Buchanan Ltd. She is believed to have three children. Detective Inspector Bob Richardson said that she was “very lucky she was not more seriously injured. The third rail carries 750 volts of electricity and she could have been electrocuted or even struck by an early morning train.”