THREE people died after being hit by three different trains in one day.

Police have said none of the deaths in Wivelsfield, Billingshurst and just outside London in Bromley South were suspicious.

The incidents caused travel chaos with hours of delays and cancellations for tourists piling into Sussex to enjoy the bank holiday weather. Crowds of people were stuck for hours at Brighton Station on Saturday night as they tried to board trains destined for London.

At 7.35am, the 6.02am Southern service from Victoria to Southampton hit someone by the Rosier crossing just north of Billingshurst Station. The track did not fully re-open for two hours and disruption continued until 1.30pm. Then Thameslink services were disrupted with delays after someone was hit by a Southeastern train from Ashford International to Victoria at Bromley South at 11.30am.

At 5pm a third person was hit at the Bedlands crossing in Wivelsfield by the 4.12pm London Bridge to Brighton service. This resulted in the Brighton mainline shutting for an hour and 20 minutes while emergency services and engineers attended. There was significant disruption until the end of the day with many cancellations because trains and staff were unable to run as planned due to the delays.

Lucy Bailey, 29, spent the day on Brighton beach with friends but it took her two hours to get back to East Croydon after she left at around 6pm.

She said: “The deaths are tragic. The lack of certainty about the trains made it quite stressful. When we got to the station we started to see services being cancelled so we got on to a packed train to Victoria. It was really hot and everyone was standing initially. The staff were doing their best but no one knew what was happening and it took a long time for travel information to be updated.”

Govia Thameslink has apologised for the disruption.