AT 1.39pm on March 4, 1989, five people were killed yards from Purley Station in one of the worst rail disasters the country has ever seen.

Yesterday, exactly ten years on to the minute, only the roar of trains thundering through the station broke the sombre silence as friends and relatives of the dead and injured gathered to remember that dreadful day.

A group of around 60 people huddled on the platform for a moving memorial service in memory of the five who lost their lives, four of whom were from Sussex.

Among them was the family of Colin Clark, a journalist from Worthing, who died.

His wife Carol, daughters Danielle, 19, and Tiffany, 11, and step-daughters Debbie, 29, and Julie, 31, stood perfectly still, moving only once to lay their own floral wreaths at a plaque marking the crash in which 94 were injured.

After the service, Carol said: "I just cannot believe it has been ten years."

Danielle said: "The service was very nice, very moving."

Others, who could do nothing to fight back the tears, left promptly after the 15-minute service, preferring not to speak about the accident that has haunted them for a decade.

Representatives from all the emergency services, including the London Ambulance Service and Purley Fire Station, who battled so bravely to rescue passengers from the mangled wreckage of the two trains that collided, also laid wreaths.

And the Mayor of Croydon, Coun Pat Ryan, paid his respects.

Local vicar, the Rev Charles Trefusis, led the service that paused at exactly 1.39pm for a minute silence.

He began proceedings by saying: "We meet together on this sad and poignant day to remember the accident ten years ago, and in particular the five who died, their families, relatives and friends who are left behind; the passengers who survived the incident, including those who were injured and all those who continue to carry around the emotional scares of that day.

"It may appear that the victims of other rail accidents have received greater national publicity and support, but we would want to reassure all concerned that they and their loved ones have not been forgotten."

Astirring solo of the hymn The Lord's My Shepherd, gave those present time for private thought.

Lynn Benn, a chorister at Rev Trefusis's church in Purley, never faltered as trains screamed through the windswept station, drowning out her touching tones.

Some of those injured in the crash between the 12.17pm from Littlehampton to Victoria and the 12.50pm from Horsham, and others who were among those called in to help in the rescue operation that followed, were unable to be at the memorial service.

They included Steve Knight, 29, of Goring Road, Worthing, one of the crash victims ten years ago, who was working during the service yesterday.

He said: "The most powerful memory is of the eerie silence immediately afterwards, then the amazement that I had escaped with very minor bruising even though I was in a carriage that went down the embankment.

"The man opposite me broke his leg and many more were injured so I was lucky."

Sussex ambulanceman Tim Fellows, from Polegate, who had only been in the ambulance service for six weeks, recalled being flagged down by police officers to help treat the hordes of injured people.

He was returning from a job in London when he was drafted in to help.

Tim, now a group station officer for Sussex Ambulance Service, said: "It really was going in at the deep end. I had only been in the ambulance service for six weeks at the time.

"I stayed by the ambulance treating three or four patients while my colleague went to the main area of the crash. I have never been to anything quite so big since."

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