Thousands of Tube passengers face delays and disruption on Thursday because of safety concerns over the fire strike.

Twenty-two deep-lying stations have been closed by London Underground (LU) following a safety assessment and a further two stations, Royal Oak and Old Street, have closed due to staff shortages.

LU says that 60 of its 505 trains are not running because drivers are refusing to work on safety grounds.

As a result the Waterloo and City line, which carries tens of thousands of commuters into the City, has been suspended.

Stations closed on Thursday

Belsize Park Borough Caledonian Road Chalk Farm Covent Garden Edgware Road (Bakerloo Line) Elephant & Castle Gloucester Road Goodge Street Hampstead Holland Park Holloway Road Kennington Lambeth North Lancaster Gate Mornington Crescent Old Street Queensway Regent's Park Royal Oak Russell Square Shadwell (peak hours only) Tufnell Park Wapping

Restricted services are running on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines and delays are also expected on the Northern, Central, Victoria and Metropolitan lines.

LU said 96 drivers had refused to perform their duties. But the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) claims "hundreds of its members" had not come into work.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT said his members had the right "and responsibility" not to undertake duties that put themselves and others in danger.

He added: "If LU victimises any of our members for exercising their legal right, we will immediately ballot for industrial action."

'Potential danger'

LU's safety director, Mike Strzelecki, said: "We have clear, well-practised procedures to deal with fire alerts.

"But the critical safety factor is to evacuate potential danger areas quickly and calmly."

There are no reports of any delays on mainline train services because of the strike.

"We expect to run trains and we are not anticipating any significant disruption," said a spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies.

The Blackwall Tunnel which runs under the Thames in east London will remain open but there will be no rush hour tidal flow on Thursday or Friday morning.

More than 300 calls, including many false alarms, have been made to emergency firefighting teams in London since the strike began.