Police have apologised for sending letters inviting the seven people killed in the Croydon tram crash to a survivors’ event.

British Transport Police (BTP) posted hand-addressed letters to those affected by the derailment, but mistakenly also included the bereaved families.

The forced blamed “human error” for the mistake, and said officers contacted each family to give notice that they had posted them the invitation.

The letter had been written by the wife of one of the survivors, asking if other affected would like to meet.

A spokeswoman for BTP said: “We are working hard to ensure that everyone involved in the Croydon tram derailment is receiving the support they need and sent out letters to invite people to a forum being organised by one of the survivors.

“Due to human error, the list of people we provided included the bereaved families.

“As soon as this was realised, we immediately contacted each family through their specially trained officers to ensure they had warning before a letter arrived.

“We are sorry for any unnecessary hurt this may have caused them.”

Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, and Robert Huxley, 63, all from New Addington, and Mark Smith, 35 and Donald Collett, 62, Philip Logan, 52, were all killed in the early-morning crash on November 9.

The victims’ families also received an apology from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) after it failed to show then its latest interim report before it was published on Monday, February 20.

A RAIB spokesman said: “Several families did not receive their copies of our interim report in the post on time.

“Where we were made aware that a report had not been received, we dispatched further copies. Unfortunately, not everyone received the report before it was published. We are sorry that this has happened.

“We take our responsibility to keep victims’ families informed extremely seriously and are looking at how this can be avoided in the future.”