Travel chaos hit Sussex last night after a man was killed by a train.

The man lay down in front of an eight-carriage train at Shoreham East level crossing at 5.30pm.

Chris Gogarty, 20, of Cross Road, Southwick, was waiting at the front of the traffic queue at the crossing when it happened.

He said: "He was sitting on the wall near the crossing. When the gates went down, he ran up to them and was looking up and down the track impatiently.

"Suddenly he jumped over. I thought he was bored of waiting and was going to run across but then he lay down on the track face-first with his neck on oneof the rails and turned his head so he could see the train coming towards him.

"I looked away as I did not want to see what was going to happen next.

"When I looked back there was only the train, no body or bits of him. He was just gone."

More than 200 people on the Victoria to Southampton service were stranded for more than an hour.

Siobhan Ryan, a reporter for The Argus, was on her way home. She said: "Our first thoughts were with the man who died and with the train driver. It was dreadful."

The train was allowed into Shoreham station at 6.40pm and the service was terminated.

Passengers either had to wait for a new service or use buses.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said an investigation was under way but there were no suspicious circumstances.