Revealed: Hero Huntingdon train driver who saved lives with quick-thinking is Royal Navy and Iraq War veteran
The heroic train driver who saved the lives of passengers in a stabbing attack in Huntington was revealed to be a Royal Navy and Iraq War veteran.
Peterborough’s Andrew Johnson quickly diverted the London-bound train to Huntingdon station after being warned about the mass stabbing, enabling emergency services to act quickly.
Eleven people were hospitalized in the horrific 15-minute stabbing attack on Saturday evening, and two people were left in a ‘life-threatening’ condition on Sunday.
Two British citizens were being detained on suspicion of attempted murder. One was later released without further action.
It is understood that Mr. Johnson, who has been a train driver since 2018, served in the Royal Navy for 17 years.
He was sent to Iraq in 2003 during the Second Gulf War.
After working as a weapons engineer, he appears to have finished his career as a Chief Petty Officer.
The 18.25 LNER service from Doncaster to King’s Cross in London had left Peterborough station at 19.30 when the knife attack began.
Andrew Johnson (pictured) ensured emergency services acted quickly by quickly diverting the London-bound train to Huntingdon station after being alerted to the mass stabbing.
It is understood that Mr Johnson, who has been a train driver since 2018, served in the Royal Navy for 17 years.
Heroic train driver Mr Johnson in a photograph taken in his youth
Mr Johnson was collecting donations for the Royal British Legion at Waitrose supermarket just days before the attack. Telegram was first reported.
Dramatic footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows confused victims walking down the platform with bloody rags in their hands, looking around and asking ‘where are we?’
Sirens can be heard blaring loudly as a passenger holds a white rag over his head, from which crimson blood has oozed.
While the person shooting the video records the injured gentleman walking away, he says ‘this is crazy’ and an officer shouts ‘I’m calling everyone’.
British Transport Police received reports of the incident at 7.42pm on Saturday before heading to the scene where armed officers boarded the train and detained two suspects. One was later released without further action.
Eyewitness Olly Foster said he heard passengers shouting ‘run, run’ on the LNER Doncaster to London King’s Cross train.
Police said that 11 people were treated at the hospital, two of them were still in life-threatening condition, and four were discharged.
In the video, one of the victims is seen holding a rag as red blood oozes onto his head.
Police declared the attack a ‘major incident’ and are investigating the stabbing alongside counter-terrorism police (Image: Train stopping on the platform on Sunday morning)
Police cars and ambulances are seen outside Huntingdon Station in Cambridgeshire
Police officers added on Sunday that “there was nothing to indicate this was a terrorist incident.”
Mr Foster said Coach H was listening to Audible on his phone when he started hearing alerts from other passengers.
He told the BBC: ‘A few of us were looking at each other and wondering if this was a joke; Like it was Halloween, they might have been joking.
‘But then you could see in their faces that they were running.
‘There was a girl, she was in a very, very bad situation because the guy actually tried to stab her – and one of the old men, who was an absolute hero, blocked it with his head.’
Mr Foster said the heroic gentleman had a wound to his neck and head, which led other passengers to give him their jackets to help stop the blood.
Many people praised the ‘heroic old man’ on social media who ‘put his head on the road to save a child’.
User One X said: ‘I pray for the victims of this horror. Praise be to the man who protected the young girl.
‘Thank you to the first responders and those caring for the injured.’
