My horror of hearing a missing man banging on a wall when I went ghost hunting in a haunted train station – and you can do it too

PHANTOM footsteps, doors opening and closing when nobody is there and even a ghostly crying child.

These are just some of the paranormal phenomena experienced by ghost hunters 50ft below ground in one of London's abandoned tube stations.

, a London-based group made up of Hazel F Williams and her nephew Dean, often conducts investigations in South Kentish Town tube station - a building with a spooky history.

Originally called Castle Road, the station opened in 1907, but was closed in 1924 due to too few people using it. It has since been nicknamed 'the ghost tube station'.

In the 1950s it was rumoured that a commuter, Mr Brackett, met a grisly end there, after becoming trapped when the train stopped and he got off by mistake.

"No more tubes came and it was locked up, but he couldn't walk on the tracks," says Hazel. "Legend has it that he died in there, and his ghost still haunts the station today as he looks for a way out."

Spectrum have been conducting investigations since 1996, going into people's haunted homes to help them with supernatural activity and running public ghost hunting events.

"We've done a lot of investigations down here," says Hazel. "We've heard mysterious footsteps, knocking and banging.

"One day we even made contact with the spirit of a nine-year-old girl who spoke to us, I think she may have died in an accident when the tube station was still in use."

While the pro hunters naturally have state of the art equipment, there are plenty of ghost hunting apps available for mobiles.

Sun Online went underground with Spectrum for a special Halloween ghost hunt, pitting three iPhone apps against their specialist toolkit.

And things certainly got spooky...

Mysterious footsteps and crying ghost children

Could Mr Brackett still be haunting the station today? That's what Hazel, Dean and Sun Online are hoping to find out with our technology.

During previous visits to the station, they have heard what they describe as "poltergeist activity", including banging and footsteps, as if somebody is trying to find their way out.

They've also had positive responses when trying out ouija boards in the station.

"We've called out his name in the past and got a few replies, him moving the board or knocking" says Hazel.

The building does have an extremely creepy atmosphere, which is heightened when you know its history.

And Dean, who describes himself as "a sceptic" compared to Hazel who is a full believer in the paranormal, says doing investigations down here has opened his mind to the possibilities that there is something else out there.

Spirit sticks

Hazel and Dean are kitted out with a box full of equipment, such as various sound recorders, crucifixes and even a ouija board, which they have bought from specialist shops and online.

Tonight, they will be using a Meterk Meter, which uses an electro-magnetic field (EMF) to see if a presence is nearby and a Mel Meter 8704 that measures EMF and temperature: if a spirit is present people will often complain of a room going cold.

They also have a K2 meter, which that can allow for communication from spooks by them manipulating the LED lights on the meter.

"The theory is, your soul carries on within electromagnetic fields, which is how spirits can communicate with us through these items," says Hazel.

In Sun Online's tool box are three iPhone apps.

They are: Ghost Hunter M2 (99p), Ghost Detect Pro (free) and Ghost Sensor (free), which is supposed to imitate the K2 meter.

On first glance, the apps don't seem particularly great. They are packed full of ads, make a lot of weird bleeping noises and seem completely incomprehensible and impossible to use.

And I'm sceptical as to how an iPhone can even detect ghosts in the first place.

When we ask Hazel what she thinks of the apps, she says they're not as effective for ghost hunting as the experts' equipment, as they can be affected by the phone's own electrical fields.

She's right: as we walk round, not very much happens with the apps. Ghost Sensor does absolutely nothing, the needle remains still even when Dean's K2 meter starts to spike.

When I try out Ghost Detect Pro, I suddenly hear random words coming out of my phone: "Wild!" "Grant!" "Fish!"

I wonder if this is a spirit trying to communicate, but Hazel assures me these are often randomised sounds assigned to the app for fun, which is a little bit disappointing.

'Knock twice if you're there'

Our final room to try is a corridor with stairs leading up to the next level at the back of it. This, Hazel says, is the place where Spectrum have had the most activity.

And it doesn't disappoint: Hazel and Dean's equipment starts spiking and bleeping, and even the M2 app shows the EMF reading is jumping.

The room suddenly falls extremely cold, before we hear it: somebody coming down the stairs very slowly, followed by banging sounds.

With everyone accounted for, there's surely only one explanation for who it could be...

"If that's you, knock twice for yes," shouts Dean. And immediately, we hear two knocks coming from the other side of the room.

To be honest, it's so scary I forget to check my apps, but based on earlier I can't imagine they were doing very much.

We wait to hear if there's any more, but the weird atmosphere that had been in the room during the knocking lifts, and Hazel whispers "he's gone".

Whether that was Mr Brackett or not, we will never know...

Although I can't fully explain the spookiness down in disused station, or the footsteps and knocking we heard, I remain on the fence about ghosts.

And as for the apps? They're best left to the professionals.