South-east London commuters were left stranded after a train broke down minutes after leaving the station.

The 6.32pm train from London Bridge to Dorking broke down near New Cross Gate, leaving passengers trapped on board for two hours yesterday evening.

Commuters complained of "sardine can conditions" aboard the train, which had six fewer carriages than usual.

One Twitter user wrote: "There was no water, no staff to help at New Cross, not acceptable after the two hours of hell so far and then some."

Valerie Shawcross, deputy London mayor for transport, wrote on Twitter: "We've all spent two hours in hot sardine can conditions on a broken down train. 

"Hundreds of standing passengers at wits end."

She also said: "Do I want TfL to run London's trains? Yes!"

Other passengers said they were concerned about people's health on the broken-down service.

Southern Rail also took to Twitter to direct passengers to its website to claim compensation.

A spokesman for Southern said: "“We sincerely apologise to passengers on the 6.32pm service from London Bridge yesterday evening, and also to those affected by the resulting delays on the network. 

"The train came to a stand outside New Cross Gate and despite efforts to get it moving, a second train had to be sourced to assist it into the station, where passengers could get off to continue their journey. 

"We will be undertaking a full investigation into the cause of this incident and we urge passengers on this service, or delayed elsewhere on the network by over 30 minutes, to claim compensation on our website and we once again apologise for the long delay suffered"