FAMILIES travelling to the seaside on one of the hottest days of the year have told how hundreds of drunken youths “terrorised” passengers by taunting commuters, vomiting and smoking in carriages.
Thousands of teenagers are reported to have filled trains as they made their way to Troon, Ayrshire, and then proceeded to become loud and aggressive, according to witnesses.
Lucy Mathers, one of those heading to the beach, had returned to her family home in Neilston from Amsterdam, where she now lives, to spend the Bank Holiday weekend with her family.
READ MORE: Troon Beach chaos sees ‘foul-mouthed and boozed-up’ teens swarm area
But the 30-year-old’s trip to Ayr was ruined when her five-year-old niece was left unable to sleep following the scenes on the train.
Ms Mathers said: “You could see there were alcohol bottles down their tops. A woman told me she didn’t understand how they could get it on board if they were being checked but I didn’t see any bag checks take place.
“There were maybe 100 teenagers at Paisley station. They were all pretty drunk and they were falling all over us – it was like a stampede as they were getting on the train.”
Ms Mathers was told by a teenage girl the event had been co-ordinated on Facebook, with a page set up telling children which stations where unmanned by police and rail officials. This allowed them to bring their alcohol on board the train without difficulty.
While police boarded the train at Irvine, Ms Mathers said bag searches were “pointless” as the alcohol was hidden in the teenagers’ clothing.
She told how her niece witnessed young people swinging glass bottles in the air and dropping their cigarettes on to the alcohol-soaked floor. Ms Mathers said the experience was “pretty terrifying”.
After spending the day at Ayr beach, the pair returned to the train to make the journey home to Neilston. However, Ms Mathers said her niece was so frightened that she was forced to contact her parents for a lift.
Witnesses said police closed the gates at Troon station on Monday evening in a bid to limit the number of teenagers boarding each train.
The chaos resulted in at least six arrests, including a 15-year-old, while a 16-year-old boy was rushed to Crosshouse Hospital after a large disturbance broke out on the beach on Sunday.
Around 50 police officers from Ayrshire, supported by the British Transport Police, the Red Cross and the Scottish Ambulance Service, helped to deal with the situation.
Describing the trouble as “unacceptable”, Chief Inspector Davie Gray from the British Transport Police said: “During the weekend, officers from BTP worked long hours, alongside Police Scotland, to deter incidents and to prevent trouble makers from drinking alcohol. Alcohol bans were in place, and where police officers identified youngsters with alcohol it was confiscated.”
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A ScotRail Alliance spokesman said: “Anti-social behaviour at our stations and on trains is totally unacceptable, and we will continue to work with the British Transport Police to tackle this.
“The safety of our customers and employees is our priority and everyone should be able to travel in peace.”
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