A drunken top civil servant, who had to be protected from angry Tube passengers after telling them he was a Muslim and had a bomb, has been jailed for 12 months.

Ministry of Justice official George McFaul, a survivor of an IRA bombing in his native Northern Ireland, warned his fellow commuters that they had just a minute left to live before his rucksack device detonated.

He then repeated: "It is going to go off in 60 seconds."

London's Southwark Crown Court heard that one terrified woman traveller immediately pulled the emergency lever to alert the driver.

Fortunately, the Northern Line train, which had been stuck in a tunnel at the time because of signal problems, then started moving and pulled into King's Cross station.

As the doors opened, everyone fled, leaving the 43-year-old "occasional binge-drinker" still in his seat.

He was immediately surrounded by station staff, who took one look at the state he was in and decided there was no danger.

One of them then searched his rucksack, finding nothing more threatening than a paperback and a mobile phone.

Station supervisor Michael McKenna later told police the passengers, who were still on the platform, were "angry and I had to keep them apart from him".

McFaul, of Turner Road, Walthamstow, east London, pleaded guilty to one count of communicating false information on December 6 last year.

Copyright Press Association Ltd 2008