KENT commuters travelling by train to London and other parts of the county faced delays today after an apparent suicide on the tracks.

A man jumped in front of a train from the platform of Shortlands station between Bromley South and Beckenham just after 5am.

A spokeswoman for South Eastern Trains said the driver of the train which struck the body was automatically relieved from duty because of the shock of the incident and the train was taken out of service to check that there was no damage.

As a result there were knock-on effects to other services, but the company said few delays were longer than 10 minutes and all services were returned to normal by 7pm.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating the incident.