A forensic officer photographs the London North Eastern Railway train where 11 people were stabbed on Saturday.Jack Taylor/Reuters
British Transport Police have ruled out terrorism in a knife attack on a train Saturday night that left 11 people wounded, including a crew member who suffered life-threatening injuries while trying to stop the attacker.
On Monday police charged Anthony Williams, 32, of Peterborough, with ten counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm, and one count of possession of a knife.
Mr. Williams has also been charged with attempted murder in connection with a separate attack at a London Docklands Light Railway station at around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. A victim in that knife attack suffered facial injuries, police said.
“Our investigation is also looking at other possible linked offences,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said in a statement on Monday.
Police have yet to establish a motive.
A stabbing attack on a U.K. train injured multiple people on Saturday.
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Counterterrorism police were initially called to join the investigation, but by Sunday morning those officers had been pulled out.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” Superintendent John Loveless said Sunday. “We continue work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident. At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
Attack unfolded on busy train after soccer match
The attack happened after the train left Doncaster in northern England at around 6:30 p.m. en route to London’s King’s Cross station. The train was full of Nottingham Forest supporters from London who had attended the soccer club’s home match against Manchester United.
The suspect boarded the train about an hour later at Peterborough and police began receiving emergency calls at 7:42 p.m. about reports of multiple stabbings.
Witnesses said they saw a man with a large knife running through the train stabbing people. Some passengers ran into other carriages and hid in toilets.
One passenger, Olly Foster, told the BBC that he was listening to an audiobook when a man ran past him shouting; “Run, run, there is a guy stabbing literally everyone, everything.”
Law enforcement officers inspect the scene at Huntington Station, where the train was rerouted.Jack Taylor/Reuters
At first, he thought it was a Halloween prank but he soon saw the fear among fellow passengers.
“You could kind of see in their faces they were being serious,” he said. “Everyone was really pushing behind us, really panicking.”
Mr. Foster said he saw one man who had been stabbed in the head while protecting a young girl.
Another passenger, Amira Ostalski, said the attacker jumped out of his seat holding a kitchen knife.
“It was like he had a mission to stab anyone he saw right in front of him,” Ms. Ostalski told the BBC. “There was blood everywhere. People were screaming, ‘He’s got a knife.’”
Man in critical condition was trying to save others
Nottingham Forest said in a statement that the soccer club was aware that “many individuals demonstrated extraordinary bravery, which undoubtedly helped prevent even greater harm.”
The train was redirected to Huntingdon station where armed officers quickly arrived and tasered the suspect, who had jumped from the train when it stopped. Police said the suspect was detained within eight minutes of the first emergency call.
Ten people were taken to hospital by ambulance and another person self-presented at hospital. While nine were initially believed to have life-threatening injuries, following assessment and treatment, five have been discharged and one patient remains in a life-threatening condition, police said Sunday.
The man still in critical condition is a member of the train crew who police said was injured while trying to stop the attacker.
“Having viewed the CCTV from the train, the actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives,” Deputy Chief Constable Cundy said on Sunday. He added that detectives were looking into the background of the suspect and events that led up to the incident.
Nigel Roebuck, an officer at the trade union ASLEF, which represents railway staff, said the driver of the train was receiving support. “He’s good. He was clearly shaken up,” Mr. Roebuck told Sky News.
“It sounds as if he did exactly the right thing when the emergency developed in that he didn’t stop the train in the middle of two stations where it’s obviously difficult for the emergency services to reach.”
Recent stabbing attacks have rattled the country
The attack is the latest in a series of deadly stabbings that have put the country on edge.
Last week, a 49-year-old man was killed and two others injured in a knife attack in London. An Afghan refugee who came to Britain in 2020 has been arrested.
Last month, two men died and three men were injured in an attack at a synagogue in Manchester during Yom Kippur services. The Syrian-born attacker was shot dead at the scene by police.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered condolences to the victims of Saturday’s attack. “My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” he said.
While the latest attack has raised fears about the level of violence involving knives, figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that knife crime fell last year across England and Wales, excluding Greater Manchester, which has a different reporting system.
There were around 49,600 offences involving knives during the year ended March 31, according to the ONS. That was 1.4-per-cent lower than in 2023-24 and 4.6-per-cent less than the roughly 52,000 knife crimes reported in 2019-20.