ARMED police swooped on a passenger from a Southampton train as he arrived at a south coast train station - but they got the wrong man.
The rail passenger was ordered to lie face down on the platform at gunpoint after leaving the Southampton train at Bournemouth station.
Armed officers from Dorset descended on the station after receiving a tip-off from Hampshire police following an earlier armed incident which is thought to have happened in the Basingstoke area.
Terrified on-lookers described how exits at the station were all blocked off and the 21-year-old man was forced to the ground as 10 armed officers arrested the rail traveller by mistake on Saturday.
One eyewitness said: "I heard one officer say don't let anyone off the train, leave the platform' The exits were all blocked off. The 6.05pm train from Southampton, which we were waiting to get on, pulled up."
"As soon as the doors opened and the man stepped onto the platform, he was ordered to lie down.
"His arms were stretched out and his legs crossed.
"Two police officers drew their weapons. After searching his bag they took him to a disabled toilet cubicle, possibly to search him, before several officers took him away."
A Dorset spokesman confirmed it was a case of mistaken identity and the man was released without charge.
"Dorset police were advised by Hampshire constabulary of an earlier armed incident in Hampshire.
"A man was identified by a police officer on a train travelling into Dorset. The train stopped at Bournemouth railway station and the man identified was detained by two Dorset police firearms officers just after 6pm."
The spokesman said enquiries were continuing into the incident and that no shots were fired and no one was injured.
