TRAIN passengers were evacuated after vandals short-circuited the rails by throwing a chain link fence onto the tracks.

Some 20 passengers had to use the emergency exits when the 11.48am London Victoria to Maidstone East, juddered to a halt as it approached East Malling Station, on Saturday afternoon.

Police and firefighters from Larkfield and Maidstone were called to the scene in New Road, East Malling, at about 12.50pm.

Rob Hook, from Borough Green, who was on the four-car Networker with a group of friends travelling to Maidstone, when smoke started filling the carriage, said: “We were sitting on the train when we heard this bang and the carriage jolted.

“I thought at first it was a bomb or something wrong with the brakes. The carriage was full of smoke.”

He and his fellow passengers smashed the emergency exit mechanism and prised the doors apart to escape the train.

One eye-witness said: “I saw lots of people standing around and I thought 'what’s happening here?’ Someone said there had been an explosion on the line.”

A quick-thinking onlooker took photographs of the alleged offenders and gave them to police at the scene.

Services between Ashford and London were disrupted for more than an hour and the current was switched off between Kemsing and Maidstone while engineers carried out repairs.

Some trains were diverted via Sevenoaks while others were replaced by a bus service.

South Eastern Trains duty officer, Andy Piper, said repairs had been carried out quickly to prevent further delay, adding:

“There was damage to the front of the train and around the electrical pick up point on the rail. Although there was some smoke there fortunately wasn’t a fire.” He said the evacuees were taken on their onward journey by taxi.

Insp Steve Seabrook, from Kent Police, commended the actions of witnesses. He stressed: “We really appreciate public minded people taking the trouble to take a quick picture. Every bit of evidence helps, and that image could lead to identifying suspects.”

An SET spokesman said: “It’s extremely dangerous to play near or trespass on the railway. The conductor rail carries a potentially lethal current of 750 volts.”

There were no reported injuries.