Seagull invasion causes flap for passengers on Australian train

A Melbourne man has reportedly caused public transport "pandemonium" with a bag of fish and chips and a throng of hungry seagulls.

The man, sitting on a platform at the Frankston Railway Station in Melbourne's southeast, supposedly lured between 15 and 20 opportunistic seagulls with a bag of fish and chips before throwing the bag onto a train as the doors was closing, unleashing chaos on commuters inside the carriage.

"Instead of shooing the birds away, the man offered them a few chips. He'd toss one a foot or so away from him. It was like he was beckoning them to come closer," wrote Chris Hartigan, a friend of a witness, on social media.

"Right before the doors closed, the man threw the entire bag of the fish and chips into the train. The entire flock of seagulls followed the bag. And the doors closed. Inside the train: pandemonium."

The birds' reign of terror over stunned commuters lasted for at least five minutes as the train traveled to the next station.

Metro Trains, which runs the rail network in Melbourne, is yet to comment on the incident.