Tube stations across Barking and Dagenham suffered unplanned closures four times between New Year’s Day 2018 and the end of July this year, new figures released by Transport for London have revealed.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request to TfL found that there were two stations in the borough - Becontree and Upney - which saw unscheduled closures within the 19-month period.

There were two unplanned closures of Becontree station, the first being on the morning of Boxing Day 2018.

The station was shut between 7.09am and 7.50am - a total of 41 minutes - for what TfL cited as staffing issues.

The other took place less than two months later, on the evening of February 22, 2019. The 42-minute closure, which started at 11.27pm, came after emergency services were called to treat a person who had been stabbed.

Upney station also saw two unplanned closures during that period.

On October 22 last year, the station was shut for 92 minutes between 3.23pm and 4.55pm when a man fell ill. He was pronounced dead at the scene, with his death not being treated as suspicious.

The second, lasting just five minutes, took place between 8.39am and 8.44am on the morning of May 13 this year. The Post reported at the time that a person had been found dead on the tracks near the station in the early hours of that morning.

The four closures meant the stations were shut for a total of three hours - less than the single closure which took place in neighbouring Havering during that time.

The sixth longest in London, it happened when "unsafe masonry" began falling from the ceiling of Upminster Bridge station on March 14, 2018.

The falling tiles led to the station being closed from 5.30pm to 5.25am.

Across the capital, the longest closure recorded was at Hampstead station in Camden, which on May 7, 2018 was closed from 5.30am to 9.20pm.

The figures only record Tube stations and do not take into account those served only by Overground or DLR services.