Cambridgeshire train stabbings: ‘heroic’ rail staff member fighting for life after tackling attacker | Cambridgeshire

A “heroic” railway worker intervened in a mass stabbing to save the lives of high-speed train passengers A suspect suffered life-threatening injuries while remaining in custody, police said Sunday.

British Transport Police said LNER staff were recorded on CCTV trying to stop the attacker as the train traveled between Peterborough and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.

A 32-year-old British national from Peterborough is being questioned after BTP declared a major incident on the service from Peterborough to King’s Cross in central London at 6.25pm.

Witnesses described a “horrifying” incident 14 minutes after the train left Peterborough, where bloodied knife-wielding victims ran between carriages.

The incident, which occurred on Saturday night, led to 11 people being treated in hospital following an unplanned stop on platform 2 of Huntingdon station.

While the suspect, who was brandishing a large knife, was confronting the police on the platform, he was shot with a Taser by a bystander. “Kill me, kill me,” he reportedly shouted.

The 35-year-old Briton, who was initially arrested, was later released after officers determined he was not involved in the incident. 5 people were later discharged from the hospital.

BTP deputy chief constable Stuart Cundy said: “This was a horrific attack with widespread impact. My thoughts, and those of everyone at British Transport Police, are with those injured and their families, especially the brave railway staff whose families are supported by specialist officers.

“The actions of railway staff monitoring CCTV from the train were heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives.”

Police stated that there was no sign that the incident was a terrorist incident and asked the public to provide more information.

Both the RMT and TSSA unions were quick to praise rail staff and call for further action. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said he would “seek urgent meetings with the government, rail employers and the police to ensure we have the strongest possible support, resources and robust procedures”.

TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust called on the LNER and the government to “act quickly to review safety, support affected workers and ensure nothing like this happens again”.

The driver who stopped the train at Huntingdon was said to be “very shaken” but “fine”, and an Aslef union official praised him, saying he had done “exactly the right thing”. The man, identified as Andrew Johnson, is reportedly a Royal Navy and Iraq war veteran.

Nigel Roebuck, the Aslef official who is leading negotiations with the LNER, said: “[The driver] “He did not stop the train in the middle of two stations where it was clearly difficult for emergency services to reach, but continued on until he reached Huntingdon where the response was almost there.”

The LNER train left Doncaster in South Yorkshire at 18.25. About an hour later, witnesses described scenes of panic on the train as bloodied passengers began rushing through carriages to warn others of the attack.

Olly Foster said he was listening to Audible on his phone while on the H bus when a man ran past him warning passengers that he was “stabbing everyone, everything.”

“At first I thought: ‘Is this a prank, is it Halloween, are they playing tricks?’ “But it was clear from their faces that this was serious,” he said.

Police said they received their first distress call at 7.39pm and the train was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Huntingdon at 7.50pm.

Viorel Turturica, a 42-year-old taxi driver who recorded footage of a suspect being arrested by five officers, said: Daily Mail He said he had recently shouted at the police, “Kill me, kill me, kill me.”

Turturica said: “I arrived at the station’s pick-up point at 19.41 and was waiting for a passenger. When I saw the passenger a few minutes later, I saw everyone running out of the station.

“Ten seconds later, a man dressed in black, holding a huge kitchen knife, runs in front of my car at 7:47 p.m. The police arrive a few seconds later and I could hear him yelling at the police, ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me.’

“Then they give him a Taser and as soon as he gets on the ground they tell him, ‘Drop your gun.’ That’s when I started recording.”

The incident was initially declared “Plato”, the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “predatory terrorist attack”, but this declaration was later rescinded.

It was claimed that one of those injured in the incident was a Nottingham Forest season ticket holder who was seriously injured while protecting a young girl during the attack.

Police revealed the ethnicity and nationality of the suspect, who is black, following online disinformation claiming the incident was a terrorist attack by Asian Islamists.

This led a former senior official at Scotland Yard to tell the Guardian that forces were being forced to reveal the ethnicity of suspects in response to far-right speculation.

Dal Babu, a former superintendent of England’s top force, said: “While black players face racist abuse on social media, you will not be pressured on social media to state the ethnicity of suspects.”

LNER, which operates east coast mainline services in the UK, said disruption to its services between London King’s Cross and Lincoln, Doncaster, Leeds, Bradford Forster Square and Harrogate was expected to last until Monday and passengers were advised to postpone travel where possible.

Anyone with information believed to be helpful to police is asked to contact BTP by texting 61016 quoting reference 663 of 01/11/25.