RAIL PASSENGERS travelling to Shepley, Yorkshire in England were prevented from leaving the train at their stop yesterday evening because a lion was reportedly roaming nearby.

National Rail tweeted: “Passengers are currently unable to alight from trains at Shepley due to reports by police of a lion in the area”.

People who were waiting at Shepley station were able to board the train when it stopped there shortly before 5pm yesterday, but no passengers were allowed to leave until police declared the area safe a short time later.

A dozen police officers and a helicopter searched the area after a member of the public called them at around 3.30pm claiming to have seen a lion. However, police did not locate any lion and the search was dropped at 5.15pm, according to the Yorkshire Post.

The rail company insisted today that it was acting on police advice in preventing passengers from alighting in Shepley.

The person tweeting on National Rail’s account said that the request to release information on the lion warning caused “a raised eyebrow, double take and slight chuckle and then a tweet :)”

When later questioned about the lion, the company tweeted that he’s a “Christmas Temp at the mo, but we might keep him on”.

Meanwhile, the Shepley lion has set up a Twitter account to explain that all he was doing while out and about yesterday was “just trying to find somewhere to watch tonights X-factor and Downton Abbey”.