A WOMAN escaped death by inches after she plunged beneath the wheels of a moving train in Ipswich.The woman, who is believed to be in her 50s, miraculously survived despite the passenger train passing straight over her body as she hit the track.

A WOMAN escaped death by inches after she plunged beneath the wheels of a moving train in Ipswich.

The woman, who is believed to be in her 50s, miraculously survived despite the passenger train passing straight over her body as she hit the track.

A terrified driver watched as the middle-aged woman disappeared under his engine. The driver immediately slammed on his breaks and came to a halt further up the track. He got out of his cab, expecting to find the woman's remains behind the train, but amazingly she had survived and was sitting up in the middle of the track.

The harrowing incident took place at the St Augustines railway bridge in Felixstowe Road, Ipswich, at about 11am yesterday.

British Transport Police were alerted and paramedics were also called to the scene.

The woman escaped relatively unscathed suffering only minor cuts and bruises. She was taken to Ipswich Hospital.

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said: "It was definitely her lucky day.

"It's a 20ft drop from the bridge down to the track. She landed on the track and the train went straight over her body and didn't touch her.

"She escaped with minor injuries and was taken to Ipswich Hospital as she had a nasty cut to her elbow."

A spokeswoman for Anglia Railways said the driver is fine following the incident but the company would be offering him as much help as it could to recover from the trauma.

"The driver is absolutely fine and he will be offered counselling. He has completed all the necessary reports and at this stage we are not expecting him to be off work."

Nobody on the train was injured during the incident, although 15 passengers were on board.

Matthew Ware, a spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Service, said: "I can confirm that we did attend an incident in Ipswich, near to St Augustines roundabout, in Felixstowe Road.

"We took a woman to Ipswich Hospital by ambulance with minor injuries, mainly cuts."

Back in January 1999 a similar incident happened when a train driver reported a woman plunging under his train on the same stretch of track.

However, after an extensive search of the track between the Woodbridge Road and Derby Road bridges, nothing was found and checks with the local hospital drew a blank

Following various appeals in the Evening Star, relatives of the woman wrote to the British Transport Police confirming that the incident did happen and the woman survived.