As the first of its kind railway, the London Underground has been famed for connecting one of the world’s most iconic cities with speed and precision since 1863.
From Chesham in Buckinghamshire all the way to Epping in Essex, the tube hurtles past landmarks like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace as it transports up to five million passengers every single day.
With such immense numbers travelling through such a densely populated city every day, probability suggests that some crime may occur – no matter how many measures are implemented to stop it.
But offences on London’s red, white, and blue carriages have grown – sparking potential fears among commuters and tourists looking to get from A to B.
Between January and August last year, a total of 16,288 crimes were reported on the tube – up 13 per cent on the same period in 2023.
Data compiled by the Daily Mail earlier this year further laid bare the scale of such growing levels of lawlessness on the Underground – notably since Sir Sadiq Khan took office as Mayor of London in 2016.
The curve of the graph revealed that the rate of crime on the tube was actually declining in the seven years after 2009, hitting its lowest crime rate of 7.3 per million passenger journeys just before Sir Sadiq landed the role.
And while figures for crime on the Underground spanning this year is not yet available, a wave of disturbing footage of brazen criminal activity on the tube in recent years has raised cause for concern about what they might reveal.
Data compiled by the Daily Mail earlier this year laid bare the scale of such growing levels of crime on the Underground – notably since Sir Sadiq Khan took office as Mayor of London in 2016
As recently as Thursday this week, behaviour on the Underground shocked millions of people across the world after footage emerged of a man dropping his trousers in a packed carriage which contained women and children.
Irate commuters quickly turned on the passenger as he refused to pull his bottoms up on the District line in east London at around 3.30pm on August 7.
The suspect, who was seen wearing headphones, visibly caused panic when he began yelling as the train travelled between Upton Park and East Ham.
He then dropped his trousers and put his belt around his neck. His bottom and genitals were on show, sparking anger around him on the train.
A passenger stood up and when confronting him, said: ‘You need to get off the train.’ But the flasher began yelling back: ‘f*** off’, repeatedly.
The commuter said in response: ‘What do you mean f*** off. You need to get off the f***ing train. Now. There are kids on here.’
With the train busy with children on their summer holidays from school, passengers took matters into their own hands and removed him from the tube.
The man at the centre of the incident has been detained under the Mental Health Act and police are investigating.
The moment a commuter confronts a man on the Tube after he dropped his trousers in a packed carriage
Passengers repeatedly asked him to put his genitals away and get off the train. He responded by waving his belt and screaming so the group attacked him
The suspect’s belt was taken off him and hurled away. He was then pinned to the floor of the carriage
A group carried him off the train and pinned him there, waiting for help to arrive
The Daily Mail also revealed London’s most dangerous tube and train stations earlier this year.
More than 4,100 crimes were recorded in 2024 at King’s Cross St Pancras alone, one of the capital’s busiest terminals. This is more than any other station on TfL’s entire network.
However, when taking passenger numbers into account, the most dangerous station is Poplar on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), near Canary Wharf.
Statistics collated by the British Transport Police (BTP) and TfL show 46 crimes were committed at the stop on the self-driving line last year. This equated to a rate of 58.7 offences for every million passengers.
It was followed by Cockfosters, the northern terminus of the Piccadilly line, with 57.4 crimes per million passengers, and then King’s Cross St Pancras with 51.4.
Since Sir Sadiq became Mayor in 2016, Tube crime rates have more than doubled, from nine per every million journeys to more than 21 last March. Similarly, offences have risen on the Overground, DLR and Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022.
The Mail’s analysis comes after shocking statistics laid bare the ever-worsening crime epidemic plaguing commuters – who have fallen victim to violent, racist and sexual assaults.
One recent instance of such behaviour on the tube occurred when Mansoor Ahmed, 30, sexually assaulted two women while in the Underground. He was last month jailed for 26 months and placed on the sex offenders register for a decade.
He assaulted the first woman while walking up the stairs at Gloucester Road station on September 6, 2020 and just a few months later on November 20, he assaulted another woman who was walking down the steps at Charing Cross.
Jaya Pathak, who campaigned for more action against sexual harassment on the tube after she was assaulted last year, told the Daily Mail that the situation has been ‘getting worse’.
Ms Pathak, 27, was harassed by a man who continually starred at her for several stops, then ‘pretended to be drunk’ and rested his head on her shoulder on a Victoria line train to Walthamstow last April.
Mansoor Ahmed (pictured), 30, was last month jailed for 26 months and slapped on the sex offenders register for a decade after he sexually assaulted two women on the tube
Jaya Pathak (pictured), 27, was sexually assaulted on the tube last year and has called for more staff at stations to deter would-be sexual predators
‘He tried to make it look as if he was nodding off as an excuse to touch me, when I pushed him off, he laughed it off and kept starting again,’ said Ms Pathak, who works in foreign policy.
She said that the man even beckoned to her to get off the train at Blackhorse Road, the stop before she was due to get off at the end of the line.
As the station was platform was virtually empty at the terminus, she felt unsafe as no staff could have been there to put a stop if things turned sour.
Ms Pathak called for TfL to staff emptier end-of-line stations as a deterrent to would-be sexual predators, who may not act if someone else is watching.
In another shocking violent incident against females, one woman was whipped in the face with a belt in an attack at Green Park station last January.
Liban Ahmed, who handed a suspended 18-month prison sentence for the attack, was caught on film shouting as he moved up and down the platform, trying to avoid two men trying to grab him.
In a fit of rage, the 27-year-old lashed out with his belt, catching a woman trying to board the train.
Liban Ahmed whipped a woman in the face with his belt at Green Park Station
Concerns have grown further than violence in recent months too, after the Daily Mail exclusively revealed a video of a passenger openly smoking crack cocaine on an Underground tube.
The incident occurred during rush hour when the passenger who captured the footage noticed other commuters hurriedly moving away from a man sitting across from him on the Tube.
Initially assuming the man might be homeless and people were simply avoiding the smell, the passenger was horrified when he realised the individual was attempting to light up crack cocaine in full view of fellow passengers.
‘I was travelling back from work during a busy(ish) hour when I became aware that a number of people before me had started to get up and move away before what was normal for the next stop,’ the commuter, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
‘I looked up and saw a dirty, scuffy-looking man opposite me and I initially thought that he was homeless and that other people were moving away because he smelt bad or something before realising that he was behaving oddly and attempting to light a small, metal pipe.
‘Thinking he was just drunk, I said «Dude, no- you can’t do that here» before I recognised that he was attempting to light up some crack.’
A man on the tube horrified commuters when he started smoking crack-cocaine earlier this year
The shocking sight comes amid growing concern about rising crime levels on the Tube and on the capital’s streets
Yet another shocking incident occurred in February 2024 when homeless man Brwa Shorsh, 24, pushed an innocent stranger, Tadeusz Potoczek, onto the tracks at Oxford Circus underground station just seconds before the train pulled in.
Mr Potoczek had been hurrying home to catch a flight and was looking at the arrivals board when he was attacked in what prosecutor Sam Barker described as ‘the thing of nightmares’.
The Kurdish migrant had claimed he’d targeted the 60-year-old in ‘revenge’ after thinking Mr Potoczek had given him a ‘dirty look’.
Fortunately Mr Potoczek, a postman, missed the electrified rail and was helped back onto the platform by a passer-by who rushed to his aid.
The driver had put on the emergency brake and his train was just four seconds away from hitting the victim.
Shorsh had denied trying to kill his victim and claimed he did not know a train was arriving at the time.
But in July that year he was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury at Inner London Crown Court after just 32 minutes of deliberations and he was jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
Brwa Shorsh was jailed for life after pushing a man on to the tracks at Oxford Circus underground station
Furthermore, a shocking machete attack at Edgware Road last November saw ambulance crews called to save a man who had been stabbed multiple times.
A teenage boy, 17 was arrested and pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, and affray.
The attacker, dressed in grey sweatpants, a black hoodie and wearing a balaclava, was seen in footage with an enormous machete at the entrance to the station.
As an eyewitness films the vicious stabbing, the attacker can be seen making several attempts to swipe at someone laying on the ground.
After the attacker finally runs away, the camera moves in closer to reveal a man injured holding his side.
In the background, a staff member for Transport for London can be seen walking towards the injured victim.
A spokesperson from British Transport Police said: ‘Following a stabbing at Edgware Road underground station on 19 November, a boy aged 17, has pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, and affray.
‘A second boy, also aged 17, has pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. Both are due to appear for sentencing in February.’
Footage begins by showing an attacker dressed in black and grey holding a machete
Concerns over racially abusive behaviour also grew when, in December 2022, a woman launched a racist tirade at a passenger on the Jubilee line – before later blaming a ‘spiked drink’ for her behaviour.
Janice Wilding, 49 from Lambeth, south London, could be heard saying: ‘Don’t f***ing bring my mother into it. Because I’ll rip you apart b***.
‘I will rip you apart. Because you’re black and you think you’re big innit [sic]. Shut your f***ing mouth’.
As she continues on her tirade, other passengers can be seen gathering around her to hold her back, pleading: ‘Please get off the train’.
The defence is met with hostility, as Wilding yells at them: ‘Get your f***ing hands off of me. She’s a f***ing n****’.
One woman then successfully escorts Wilding off the train, as she continues to yell expletives from across the carriage.
The video, taken by a witness, was shown to police following the incident. After being reviewed, officers recognised Wilding from an incident at a hotel earlier the same day and she was arrested in January 2023.
Witness Ms Rose recalled being on a ‘fairly busy’ carriage where ‘clearly drunk’ Wilding called other passengers ‘boring’ for not joining her songs then threatened to put them on YouTube, said prosecutor Edmund Blackman.
One woman was ‘particularly uncomfortable’ with being filmed and tried to grab Wilding’s phone when she pointed it at her, triggering a wave of racist abuse.
Wilding said to the Black woman ‘Where the f**k you come from?’ and ‘Go back to Africa, you don’t belong here’.
When the victim got up to move away, Wilding lunged at her and threw a punch but missed.
Another passenger intervened and blocked the route, but Wilding carried on trying to hit her whilst screaming more abuse, the court was told.
She was given a 12 month community order and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Daily Mail has contacted British Transport Police for comment.
