Under heavy winds during rush hour this evening, a BART train struck a large tree limb near Balboa Park, interrupting service between 24th Street and Colma at around 6 p.m. BART reports that passengers from the train had to be rescued and there were no reported injuries. Service was still interrupted as of 7:15 p.m.

There was what looks like bedlam at 24th Street Station as passengers piled up on the platform.

One passenger aboard the BART train that hit the tree limb has tweeted out his tale.

A bad night for BART. Winds are still serious and this may continue.

And, on top of all this, some sort of police situation at Embarcadero Station was causing trains to have to bypass that station as of about 7:30 p.m.


Update: According to BART spokesperson Alicia Trost, via the Chronicle, the story is a bit more complicated.

Just outside Balboa Park Station, around 5:35 p.m., shortly after a switching problem had already slowed the commute, a tree limb fell toward the tracks and "glanced off the side of a downtown-bound train, Trost said, but the train continued into Balboa Park station. A train headed toward Daly City ran over the limb and stopped. BART sent a rescue train to take an estimated 400 to 500 passengers off of the disabled one."

Delays persist systemwide, and according to BART's homepage, service remains shut down between 24th Street and Daly City as of 9 p.m.

In short, a mess.