Two members of staff at a train station have been praised for finding a missing eight-year-old girl and getting her to safety after an appeal by Greater Manchester Police.

James Waring and Abdi Sharey were on shift at Blackburn station in August when they saw the unaccompanied child walking towards the ticket barriers.

After asking her some questions, they became concerned for her welfare and decided to contact the police.

Greater Manchester Police, which had launched a major search operation to locate the child earlier that day, sent officers to pick the girl up and reunite her with her family.

Craig Harrop, regional director for Northern, said: “We’re incredibly proud of James and Abdi for reacting so quickly to help reunite this girl with her family.

“Staff working at stations across our network are not just there to check tickets.

"They help protect thousands of people who travel on our services and are trained to respond to a wide range of challenging situations.”

James works for Northern and Abdi is employed by Carlisle Support Services (CSS), a company which provides gateline staff for the train operator.

Steve Cere, director of rail strategy for CSS, said: “This incident highlights the importance of having a visible staff presence across the network and underscores our commitment to actively ensuring that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.

“James and Abdi’s actions underscore our team’s dedication to keeping all passenger’s safety and wellbeing at the forefront of everything we do, and we couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Since 2022, Northern's operational colleagues have been trained to spot vulnerable people on the railway and get them to safety. 

The training is provided by the charity ‘Railway Children’, whose work focuses on identifying individuals at risk and helping with early forms of intervention.