Shocking CCTV footage shows man pushing woman on rail track

The CCTV footage shows the woman walking on the Leicester Square platform in London. Photo courstey: British Transport Police

Police are investigating a shocking CCTV footage that shows the moment a woman was pushed on to the tracks at a London Underground tube station in a random attack, The Daily Mail has reported.

The security camera footage shows a woman walking through Leicester Square Station when a man walking the other way suddenly shoves her on to the tracks.

She only misses the live rail by inches, and pulls herself back onto the platform with the help of other travellers before the next train rolls into the platform.

The alleged attacker confronts the woman and shoves her onto the tracks.

The footage shows a man, purportedly the woman's boyfriend, grabbing the attacker.

As the two men fall to the ground in a headlock, passers-by haul the girl to safety.

The attack took place five months ago, on Friday Sept 16, 2011, and the footage has been re-released by the British Transport Police after it featured in a recent documentary about the London Underground.

The woman falls on the rail track, narrowly missing an approaching train.

The woman was taken to hospital for a wound to her side, but she has since been discharged, Mail reports.

British Transport Police are still hunting the man behind the vicious assault, describing him as smartly dressed.

They said the incident stemmed from a short argument about the attacker's hat.

The attacker is tackled to the ground by a man who appears to be the victim's boyfriend.