AN 82-YEAR-OLD Warminster pensioner was killed after being struck by a train on Sunday evening at a railway crossing.

The accident happened just after 6.15pm at the crossing off Hollybush Road, where a footpath between Hollybush Road and the Westbury Road crosses the line. The Bristol-Portsmouth Harbour service was heading into Warminster from Westbury.

Police and ambulance crews attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

His family have been informed and his death is not being treated as suspicious by police.

Passengers were left on board the train for two hours as lines into and out of Warminster were closed.

Matt Potter, 17, a train passenger who lives in Warminster, said: “The train stopped and nothing was said to us for about 10 or 15 minutes but then word began to spread among the people that we had hit someone.”

Casey Snook, 15, another passenger who was returning home to Warminster, said: “At first we thought we had hit a branch or some stones and there was some confusion after we had stopped.

“But then it came out that we had hit someone and it’s just very nasty.”

Casey’s mum, Kate, 44, said: “I think it was disrespectful that on the boards in the station they said that someone had been hit by a train. I don’t really think that is necessary.”

A FGW spokesman later said: “While thankfully rare, in such incidents a balance has to be struck to provide transparent, factual information sensitively, using the same industry agreed wording.”