A brave Tynemouth man leaped into action to help a woman being attacked on the Metro using his Kung Fu moves.
Tony Pinkerton was travelling home from his martial arts training in Newcastle city centre at around 9pm on March 8 when he saw a man follow a woman onto the train at Wallsend and begin to attack her.
The 60-year-old told Chronicle Live he was forced to use his Kung Fu skills for the first time when he intervened to defend the woman during the shocking incident.
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"This young guy started to get really aggressive," Tony said.
"The vein in his neck was sticking out, his face was going red. The woman was screaming down the phone to the police.
"He lunged at her and kicked her and I stood up and got in between the pair of them. He said, 'Don't be getting involved old man because I will smack you out.'
"I said, 'You're not going to be punching anybody else today and if you do go for me, you're going to get a fright.'"
Tony said that as the man pulled his arm back to throw a punch, he managed to block it and prevent him from kicking the woman, who was on the phone to the police throughout the ordeal.
"I used some of my Kung Fu moves," Tony said.
"When he went to kick her, I stopped that and then he went to swing for me and I blocked that.
"He seemed surprised that I had intervened and began pressing the buttons on the doors to get off at North Shields.
"I told the woman to stay on the phone to the police because he was going to be leaving in a minute."
The man got off at North Shields and Tony made sure he didn't get back on the train before resuming his journey to Tynemouth where the woman also disembarked.
"I'm not Mr Tough Guy - I just thought how would I have felt if she had been badly injured and I did nothing," he said.
"I felt I had to do something."
Tony, who works at a mine in Whitby, said that he feels there is a lack of safety on the Metro and he did not blame the other passengers for not wanting to get involved because of the risks in doing so.
"Everybody put their heads down. No one wanted to get involved - and I don't blame them," he said.
"It's a crazy situation and I think they [Metro bosses] have lost control over what is going on on the Metro."
He added: "I see 11-year-olds vaping, kids running across the track, smoking on the Metro, people spitting at each other. It is not a pleasant experience on the Metro and it should be."
Metro operations director, Kevin Storey, said that Nexus works with Northumbria Police to target anti-social behaviour and said that it has its own security team that patrol trains day and night.
“This was a disturbance that spilled over onto a Metro train," he said.
“If anyone witnesses a crime on our network then they should call the police. If you see something and are concerned about getting involved then you should notify the Metro driver, or discreetly alert our control room using a mobile phone via the text alert system on 0191 202 3666.
“We are determined to ensure that Metro is safe and secure for our customers and staff. This is our top priority.
“Nexus works closely with the Northumbria force to target anti-social behaviour hot spots and fare evasion. We have our own dedicated security officers on the network in addition to our customer support teams who patrol across the day and in the evenings too.
“Annually Nexus already spends £1.2m on a dedicated police unit for Metro, and we have put a further £1.2m into our dedicated security team. We have invested £4m in improved CCTV and issued body-worn cameras to our frontline staff.
“Northumbria Police is also running Operation Maple in North Tyneside, which will see more officers on Metro, this will involve high visibility patrols and more officers on board the trains in plain clothes.”
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