The Oxford Circus terror alert was triggered when a passenger standing on a Tube platform reported hearing a single gunshot, it has been reported.
Nine people were taken to hospital and as crowds fled the central London station amid mass panic following the security alert on Friday evening.
Oxford Street was placed on lockdown and armed police launched a "category one" response following reports of shots fired at shortly after 4.30pm.
According to the BBC, a leaked TfL document shows the evacuation began when a member of the public standing on the Central line platform claimed they heard a gunshot.
Staff at the station received a report of a firearm being discharged on the westbound platform at 4.39pm, the document claims. It said the entire station was evacuated and armed police arrived at 4.45pm.
Oxford Street false terror alert
Confusion sprouted following “various differing reports of what the incident actually was”, the BBC reported.
According to the report, CCTV later showed people dispersing quickly after an altercation occurred on the platform.
The Met later stood down the incident and the station was reopened at 5.34pm.
The force later said they responded to the alert as if the incident was terror related.
Armed and unarmed officers, including from the British Transport Police, were sent but no suspects, casualties or evidence of shots being fired were ever found.
The Deputy Mayor for Transport, Val Shawcross, told the BBC she thought the police and TfL staff “managed it as well as they could” but questions should be asked to determine whether the evacuation could have been directed better.
“Clearly there is an issue about getting people out of stations very quickly, and that is something I think is worthy of more examination,” she said.
