A Letchworth man has been arrested and charged following a bizarre incident in which a member of the coastguard was called to help an injured police officer at a landlocked railway station.

The London Ambulance Service was alerted at about 8.20pm on Thursday after a British Transport Police officer broke his ankle while attempting to handle a disruptive passenger on a train at London King’s Cross.

John Woodbine, 34, of Archers Way in Letchworth, was charged with assault following the incident and has been bailed to appear before City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, February 27.

On the night the colleagues turned to the coastguard at about 9.20pm, with the call being relayed to the Tower Lifeboat Station on the Thames for assistance.

An RNLI crew member was taken to the railway station by police to help the injured officer before an NHS motorcycle responder arrived on the scene at about 10pm to give the patient pain relief.

The ambulance crew arrived at 10.32pm to take him to hospital to be treated for his ankle injury.

An ambulance spokesman said: “We are very sorry that we couldn’t get there as soon as we would have liked and for any distress this caused.

“However, we receive more than 5,000 calls a day and prioritise patients in immediately life-threatening conditions.”

RNLI staff operations officer Adrian Carey said: “This was an unusual request for us.

“We happened to have an extra crew member at the lifeboat station carrying out casualty care training so we were able to ask him to respond without it affecting the operational capability of the lifeboat station.

“The RNLI crew member took with him gas and air and a stretcher in order to assist the injured officer.”

A transport police spokesman said: “Our officers were called to handle a disruptive passenger on a train at London King’s Cross on Thursday. In the course of dealing with the incident, a BTP officer suffered a broken ankle and needed hospital treatment.”