Poverty campaigner Jack Monroe was rebuked by a train company after making a foul-mouthed complaint on Twitter.
The outspoken food blogger complained to c2c trains on social media after her carriage was plunged into darkness – an incident she said caused a “full on panic attack”.
In a message posted just before 11pm last night, the outraged activist wrote: “Hey @c2c-Rail that thing where you stop your empty train and turn all the f*****g lights off when its pitch black, that's not okay."
But c2c, which runs rail services from London's Fenchurch Street to the south-east, sparked fury among Monroe’s 70,000 followers when it replied to enquire where the incident had occurred, before adding "please refrain from using bad language".
Monroe, who has appeared on BBC's Question Time, swiftly replied: "Are you joking? I had a full on panic attack and you want to lecture me about my reaction instead of apologise? Wow."
In a tweet to the operator and one of her followers Monroe wrote: "If there had been anyone else on the train I could have asked where we were, etc, laughed it off. PA system turned off, ALL lights off, doors locked, in a tunnel, couldnt see anything in OR outside, for a horrible length of time.
"They're lucky I didn't boot a f*****g door in. Absolutely shaking. (Context: have been locked on a train before!)"
After being asked to stop swearing again or face being blocked, Monroe tweeted: "I haven't since you 'asked' me not to. Twitter isn't the place for this. I'm writing a letter. I'm an adult."
The former 999 operator later blamed her use of language on panicking and tweeted: "Currently dealing with health stuff and heart stuff."
A c2c spokesman later confirmed it had received one complaint and would be investigating, although it had no further details of the incident.
He added: "Whenever anyone swears in a tweet to us we ask them not to. In this case the customer apologised."
