Little girl left stranded on platform after tram driver closes doors and refuses to stop

Three-year-old Maisie Phillips was left alone when the tram in Nottingham took off

The incident happened on a tram in the Clifton suburb of Nottingham (PA)

A little girl was left “distraught” and alone on a tram platform – after the doors snapped shut before her parents could get off.

Anthony Phillips and his partner Megan Smith had taken their three-year-old daughter Maisie for a ride on the new tram route in the suburb of Clifton in Nottingham.

Maisie had stepped off the tram as she and her parents planned to leave, but the doors closed before Mr Phillips and Ms Smith could follow.

When Mr Philips tried to get the driver to stop and open the doors, the driver said she could not for “safety reasons”.

Mr Phillips, 28, told the Nottingham Post: "As the tram pulled up to our stop, somebody had already pressed the bell. We were at the back of the tram and got up to go towards the doors.

“Maisie was in front of me and I was holding her hand.

“She stepped out but as she did so the doors started to close. It was a case of 'do I leave my hand there or do I pull it out?'.”

He said he could see Maisie had burst into tears the moment she realised she was on her own and “dreaded to think what could have happened if she had tried to run onto the tracks to follow the tram”.

Mr Phillips was forced to wait until the next stop three quarters of a mile away and sprint back to the stop where a kind stranger was looking after the girl.

A spokesman for Nottingham Express Transit, which runs the tram service, apologised for the incident and said all their drivers were expected “to remain extra vigilant” before closing doors to help people who need extra time to get off.

He said: "This was an unfortunate incident and we apologise for any distress that may have been caused. It appears the driver closed the doors a little too quickly on this occasion and once alerted to the fact that a child had been left alone on the platform she was unable to stop for safety reasons.

"As soon as we were made aware of the situation, the youngster was picked up by our CCTV system and one of our tram ambassadors was instructed to stay with her until she could be reunited with her parents."