Huntingdon train stabbing: How the attack unfolded as witnesses feared ‘Halloween prank’ on London-bound train
When people began running from the train car shouting “run, run, there’s a man stabbing literally everyone,” terrified passengers thought it was a Halloween prank.
But when Olly Foster leaned into a chair and found it covered in blood, he realized something terrible was about to unfold.
Nine people on the LNER train from Doncaster to London had to fight for their lives after the mass knife attack, and one tenth was injured. They were taken to hospital after the train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
Follow live updates on the attack here
Counter-terrorism police launched a full-scale investigation into the attack and arrested two people; A man holding a large knife was tasered by officers, witnesses reported.
Everything we know about how the attack happened
The service departed from Doncaster at 18.25 and was on time. The London-bound train passed through the Midlands and into Cambridgeshire, making short stops at Retford, Newark and Grantham as planned. The service appeared to be scheduled to arrive in King’s Cross before 8.30pm on Saturday night.
At around 7.39pm, as the train was passing between its scheduled stops in Peterborough and Stevenage, a passenger made a desperate call to emergency services reporting “multiple stabbings”.
Eyewitnesses said passengers ran away from a man with a large knife, and some hid in toilets to escape the attack.
someone said Times “there was blood everywhere” and people were being “stamped” by others as they tried to escape.
The witness said: “I heard some people shouting ‘we love’ [you].”
Another eyewitness described the attack as “like something out of a movie”. Sun: “It was a terrible scene, really violent.”
A man said Sky News He believed he saw the suspect being tasered by armed officers before he was arrested.
“Actually, as they got closer to him, they started yelling, like get down,” he said.
“He then brandished a pretty large knife and then they took him into custody. I think it was the stun gun that finally brought him to the ground.”
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Olly Foster told the BBC he thought the attack might have been a Halloween prank when he heard people shouting “run, run, a man is literally stabbing everyone”.
Mr Foster said people quickly began pushing the car and he noticed his hand was “covered in blood” as there was “blood all over the chair” he was leaning against.
Mr Foster said an elderly man “stopped” an attacker from stabbing a young girl, causing her to suffer head and neck injuries, adding that other passengers used their own clothes to stop the bleeding. He said the incident “felt like it was going on forever.”
British Transport Police said a major incident had been declared and at one point declared “Plato”, the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “predatory terrorist attack”, before the second declaration was later rescinded.
The train was planned to run 195 miles per hour through Huntingdon on an express route with no platform access.
But the quick-thinking train driver and crew, working with the signalmen, managed to divert the train to the slow line and stop it at the first station, where armed police were waiting, 14 minutes after leaving Peterborough.
Video footage on social media showed several police cars and emergency vehicles with blue lights in a station car park and a squad of armed police running towards the stationary train at Huntingdon station.
The 10 injured people were taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. While the police confirmed that there was no death in the incident, nine of the life-threatening injuries continue to be treated.
Chief Superintendent Chris Casey said: “We are carrying out urgent investigations to establish what happened and it may be some time before we are in a position to confirm further.”
“It would not be appropriate to speculate about the causes of the incident at this early stage.”
But defense secretary John Healey told Sky News on Sunday morning that initial assessments showed the incident was an “isolated attack”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in a statement about X: “The horrific incident on a train near Huntingdon is extremely worrying.
“My thoughts are with everyone affected and I would like to thank the emergency services for their response.”
