Armed police closed Oxford Circus Tube station this evening and urged shoppers in the surrounding central London streets to take shelter in shops.
According to the BBC, they were “responding to reports of shots being fired”, but it was unclear for some time whether those reports were correct.
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British Transport Police says one woman was slightly injured as she left the station, but it has received no further reports of casualties.
Earlier, Metropolitan and British Transport Police officers had flooded the station in response to what Transport for London called a “customer incident”. London Fire Brigade sent 50 firefighters to the station.
According to the Met, “police were called at 16:38hrs on Friday, 24 November to a number of reports of shots fired on Oxford Street and underground at Oxford Circus tube station”. They said they were responding “as if the incident is terrorist related” - but did not say whether it was a terrorist incident.
At one stage armed officers entered Selfridges department store on Oxford Street, locking the doors to prevent people entering or leaving.
Security sources have since told Sky News that there is no terrorist connection to the incident.
At about 5.50pm, Transport for London said Oxford Circus station had reopened and all trains were stopping normally, although streets in the area remain closed. Ten minutes later police said the incident was over.