For the crowds kept outside the station foyer, spilling over into the taxi ranks at York Railway Station, the confused frustration was growing.

It was clear that not even the GNER men in uniform assigned to keep guard on the door knew quite what was going on.

"We really don't know," they said, but as the crowds spotted two members of the armed response unit running across the foyer with rifles behind them, they knew that it was serious.

Ironically, Phil Swallow and hundreds of passengers like him sitting on Virgin Rail's Edinburgh train knew a heck of a lot more than those bewildered people on the ground. When his train stopped ten minutes out of Leeds there was an announcement. Mr Swallow said: "They told us that the guy wanted for questioning about the murder of a police officer in Leeds had been seen at York station.

"They said that the station had been evacuated and cordoned off and they would keep us posted."

Mr Swallow, 25, of Chesterfield, had boarded the train at Sheffield at 5.50pm and was due to meet his girlfriend at York Railway Station at 7pm. More than an hour later, he told me on his mobile: "The mood on the train is calm, but everyone seems a bit concerned about what we'll find once we get to York."

But they need not have worried; Virgin offered them refunds and at 9.10pm announced that the train could finally head for York. They had intended turning back to Leeds but, announced the train driver, there were too many trains backing up behind them to do so

Some passengers were prepared to wait - in the warmth of Coopers pub with its glass frontage inside the station, but entrance outside. The place was packed.

Stranded commuters crowded into the station bar where they huddled around newspapers showing front-page pictures of suspect Nathan Coleman.

As armed police searched for the nightclub doorman in a real-life drama outside, the bar's TV relayed pictures of an episode of The Bill. At the height of operation, more than 200 passengers waited for news at the station's main entrance in freezing conditions.

They included a family of five German tourists who took photographs of the scene before abandoning their travel plans and opting for a taxi ride back into the city centre to seek accommodation.

By 8.50pm, many frustrated commuters had given up hope of catching their trains and the media presence outweighed the travelling public.

Updated: 10:03 Wednesday, December 31, 2003