A commuter caught brawling with another man at a packed London Tube station had been holding a toddler before dumping the child down a flight of steps as the dispute turned violent, a shocked witness has revealed.
Horrific footage of the melee, which happened at the entrance to Highbury and Islington Station in north London on Thursday afternoon, showed three white men in formal suits appearing to hurl a black man wearing headphones down the stairs, before throwing punches and kicking him.
However amid the chaos, a young child – aged around two according to a witness – was left crying on the ground after being dropped down the steps as the incident became heated, a source told MailOnline.
The mother of the child – who was with two other children – was then seen rushing to the boy’s aid, without noticing the pram she had been holding onto had began to roll down the incline close to the stairs.
Thankfully, a bystander was able to intervene and prevent the second child from coming to harm.
The suited man who had been holding the child is understood to have been punched to the head and was seen with a large lump on his forehead, as well as a bloodied left eye following the vicious incident.
British Transport Police are probing mobile phone footage being shared online.
A woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told MailOnline she and her mother had begun walking up the steps towards the station exit when the argument broke out, at around 5.24pm.
Footage circulating online caught a group of men fighting each other during a vicious melee on the steps of Highbury and Islington Tube station on Thursday afternoon
According to a witness, one of the men had been holding a toddler before dumping the crying child down a flight of steps as the dispute turned violent
They man in the grey tracksuit at one point swung his legs in the air to try and kick his attackers
She said: ‘At first we heard yelling. That’s when we noticed there were two men on the stairs, a black man and a white man in a formal outfit, who were arguing with each other.
‘They started pushing each other, still arguing.
‘The man in the formal attire was holding a young child aged around two.
‘But when things started to get a little more heated, the child was dropped and landed on the ground.
‘The black man punched the white man first.
‘When the first punch was thrown, two other white men joined in and started fighting against the black man, and that’s when they pushed him down and were stomping on him.’
The witness said bystanders attempted to break up the fight but the white men appeared ‘very aggravated and drunk’.
She added that there were also two women – one of whom told the witness they were sisters – trying to calm the men down.
The mother of the toddler crying on the ground was seen rushing to the boy’s aid, without noticing the pram she had been holding onto had began to roll down an incline
‘One of the women in a yellow dress kept saying, “Calm down. You don’t want to cause a scene or anything.”
‘But the white man involved in the fight was not able to be consoled in any way, even by somebody he knew.’
The witness also described how in the first moments of the fight, the formally attired man had dropped a young toddler boy to the ground.
‘His mother rushed to pick him up. The child was crying and she was also crying.
‘But because the mum was so focused on the child that had been dropped, she did not notice the pram she had been holding onto began to roll, because there’s an incline right by the stairs.
‘It was actually my mother who went to catch the pram and kept the child safe.’
The fight eventually ended, with the black man fleeing from the station, while the group in formal attire continued onto the platform and boarded a train.
Shaken by the incident, the witness gave a description of the men to a TfL worker, who informed her that that the black man had returned to the station to retrieve his headphones, but left before police arrived on the scene.
British Transport Police are investigating the incident at Highbury and Islington Station (file pic)
‘This was actually the first fight I’ve ever witnessed. My heart was racing.
‘Because I was there right in front of it, I was scared that maybe one of them would fall on me or would have fallen down these stairs.
‘Everyone was trying to calm down the man that got punched.
‘He was shouting: “You’re not the one with a black eye. I want to go after him.” But everyone was trying to hold him back, saying, “No, leave it, let it be. You don’t want to cause any other problems. He’s gone.”
‘I could see there was a really massive bump on his forehead from where he got punched and blood around his eye.’
A spokesperson for the British Transport Police said on Friday: ‘Officers received a report of a fight at Highbury and Islington Underground station at around 5.30pm yesterday.
‘Officers are aware of footage circulating on social media, and the incident is currently being investigated.
‘Anyone with information is asked to text 61016 with reference 558 of 17 July.’
