A TRAIN driver triggered a major alert yesterday after he reported seeing a dead body beside the region's main railway line.

But the scare, which caused further delays for early morning passengers on the East Coast Main Line, turned out to be a false alarm when the man got up and walked away when confronted by police officers.

British Transport Police were called to a stretch of the line between Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, and Belmont, near Leeds, following various reports that a man had been struck by a train during the early morning rush and had been fatally injured.

Officers attended the scene at about 8am, together with North Yorkshire Police, but later discovered that the man had earlier gone missing from a psychiatric hospital and was not hurt in any way.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said they initially believed they were dealing with a fatal accident after the driver raised the alarm.

He said: "A train driver reported seeing a dead body. We were getting one or two differing reports, but effectively we believed it was a possible fatal accident.

"North Yorkshire Police officers and our officers attended and the man basically got up and walked away.

"Police officers went to speak to him and found he was missing from a local psychiatric hospital. He was taken back.

"He had been lying at the side of the railway line, and the train driver jumped to the reasonable conclusion that he had been injured."

Railtrack confirmed that the incident had led to delays for passengers, and the cancellation of some services.

A spokeswoman said: "Twenty trains were delayed, four were cancelled and three were part cancelled. It happened just after our peak time."

Somebody was trespassing on the line and was taken away by British Transport Police."