A MAN was killed when he was hit by an express train in front of horrified passengers yesterday.

Several bystanders had to be treated for shock as emergency workers cleared the scene at Durham railway station. One man fainted when he went to have a closer look.

British Transport Police spokesman Ian Griffiths said police and ambulance crews were called to the scene shortly before 10am, after witnesses reported that a man in his 50s had stepped off the southbound platform into the path of a train.

He said: "There were a number of people on the platform at the time and a couple were treated for shock. It was quite a traumatic experience.

Insp Griffiths said the train involved - the GNER 7am service from Glasgow to King's Cross - had not been due to stop at the station and would have been travelling at about 60mph.

The train stopped immediately after the accident and services were delayed for nearly two hours.

Trainee solicitor Adam Scott, who was travelling south in a Virgin train, said: "Our train stopped half a mile short of Durham.

"There was an announcement that a train ahead of us had hit something. We were later told that there had been a fatality.

"When the train was able to approach the station, people were looking to see what had happened, purely out of morbid curiosity.

"Some people were actually hanging out of the window to get a better view and police told them to stop looking."

Transport police supervised the removal of the body, which was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham.

A GNER spokesman said the shocked driver had been taken off the train and would be offered counselling.

Police are confident they know the identity of the man and were last night trying to trace his next of kin. He is thought to be from the Durham area.

They are not treating the man's death as suspicious.