TWO men were today arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a teenager fell into the path of a train at a Hampshire station.

British Transport Police say the train missed the 19-year-old by seconds.

His girlfriend, also 19, watched in horror as he crawled to safety, narrowly missing the live rail.

The drama happened at New Milton station yesterday when the teenager was attacked by two strangers.

He was repeatedly punched in the face as a train entered the station at 30mph.

Police are attempting to establish if he was deliberately pushed in front of the train or fell backwards as a result of being punched.

The teenager has not been named, but comes from the New Forest area.

Today the station had returned to normal service. There was only one member of staff on duty and he had not been working when the attack took place.

He told the Daily Echo that he knew a train driver had been taken off duty at Southampton yesterday but he did not know any of the circumstances.

Det Insp Alan Jenkinson, who is leading the investigation, said police were questioning two men aged 21 and 26, who also come from the New Forest area.

He said: "The victim was seeing a friend off at 2.20pm. He was standing quite close to the edge of the platform when he was grabbed from behind and subjected to an unprovoked attack. He was either pushed or fell into the path of a train that was entering the station. The victim managed to crawl across the track with seconds to spare, narrowly avoiding the live rail in the process.

"Had he touched the live rail he would almost certainly have been killed."

Det Insp Jenkinson said the victim appeared to have been attacked at random. He was uninjured.