Rail passenger wins £28,000 after 'possibly' slipping on pigeon droppings at London station

The UK's top railway body paid out nearly £30,000 after concluding a passenger "possibly" stumbled after stepping on pigeon droppings at Paddington station, it has been revealed.

Details of the incident at the major west London hub - during which the victim hurt their leg - came to light after a Freedom of Information request.

Network Rail paid out £28,000 after the person "possibly slipped" on the droppings, documents released to the BBC showed.

It was just one of 290 payouts the operator was forced to make over the last five years following passengers claims for compensation.

The total bill for slips, trips and falls came to £950,000. In some cases the figure included money towards claimants' legal costs.

The largest single payout was £39,631 to a passenger who "slipped on some liquid and landed heavily on their right hip" at London's Charing Cross station.

Network Rail's head of claims and insurance, Philip Thrower, said: "We're a big company that takes our responsibilities seriously. With tens of millions of people using our stations every day only a tiny fraction of a per cent experience a mishap.

"If we are at fault for causing damage or injury to anyone, we rightly compensate them for those accidents and put in place new ways of working to stop them from happening again."

Victoria station in London was the location for the most successful claims, with 44.

This was followed by London Waterloo and Leeds, both with 32, Euston with 27 and Liverpool Street, with 24.

The lowest amount paid was £10 after a passenger suffered "personal injury and damage/messing to suit" when they slipped on ice at an entrance to Victoria.

Additional reporting by PA