ARMED police ordered the evacuation of a train at York Station today after a man carrying a rifle was spotted boarding one of the carriages.

The alarm was raised by a member of the public who contacted British Transport Police after seeing the man getting on board the 12.31 Newcastle to Southampton service. Both the train and platform three were evacuated to allow police to carry out a search.

Officers from North Yorkshire Police located the man, said to be in his fifties, and found two replica firearms which he had bought earlier from a shop in York. A spokeswoman for the force said the man was not arrested.

“The call was made with good intent by vigilant members of the public, however, no offences were committed and the man was allowed to continue to travel,” she said.

Terry Ruane, 49, who was at the station dropping his daughter off for a school trip, said: “I was on platform three waiting for the 12.55 to London King's Cross.

“We had moved to put our cases in the guard’s van when we got told we had to get back behind a yellow line. All they would say was that there had been an incident. Then they had everybody getting off the train. I saw a couple of police running through the train.”

The police spokesman explained that an offence is deemed to have been committed if a person has a replica weapon in a public place "without good reason".

In this instance the man was a collector of replica weapons and had just purchased them from a shop in York, so no arrest was made.