A potentially fatal incident in which a woman passenger was dragged along an Underground platform after her scarf was caught in the doors of a departing train has been described in a rail accident report.

The Tube train driver was unaware that the woollen scarf the passenger was wearing around her neck was trapped and started to move the Piccadilly line train at Holborn station in central London.

The woman was unable to pull the scarf free as the train began to move and the member of staff on duty did not alert the driver to the situation, the report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said.

The woman, who had been attempting to board the train, was dragged about 10 metres along the platform. The staff member tried to help by catching hold of her and she fell to the ground.

This resulted in the scarf being forcibly removed from her neck and carried into the tunnel by the train.

The RAIB report said: “The passenger suffered injuries to her neck and back, but the actions of the member of staff may have saved her from being more badly hurt.”

Woman was unable to pull it free and was dragged 10 metres along platform

The RAIB said the driver had been unable to see what was happening on the platform after the train had begun to move.

The report added that the role of the station assistant who came to the passenger's aid involved the safe despatch of trains but that the equipment and procedures associated with the role do not enable such assistants to intervene effectively in an emergency.

The incident occurred at about 7pm on February 3 this year.

The RAIB said that the last fatal accident of this type on the British capital’s Underground system, on October 21, 1997, had occurred at the same location in similar circumstances and involved the same type of train.

In the 1997 incident a nine-year-old boy caught his anorak in a closing Tube train door and was dragged along the platform and under the train.

However, the report into this year's incident said: “There do not appear to be any factors associated with the location that could create any link between the 1997 and 2014 accidents.”

On the 2014 incident, the RAIB made a recommendation to London Underground “covering possible improvements to the means available to staff to stop trains from departing if an emergency occurs during the train despatch process”.