COMMUTER and freight rail services between Strood and Gravesend were halted for more than five hours today while railway engineers fought to remove a dead horse from the track.

The horse, one of group that strayed on to the line from a nearby field at Hoo Junction, near Strood, was electrocuted as it strayed on to the live lines at 4 am.

Emergency bus services operated from Rochester to Gravesend while Network Rail brought a rail-mounted crane into the area to haul the dead animal off the track.

“There were no up or down services from 4 am until just after 9am,” said a spokesman for South East Trains. “The straying horses, and of course, the dead animal, caused absolute chaos and the current had to be switched off.”