Huntingdon train stabbing latest: two British suspects arrested

Insiders said there must have been “very swift communication” by the driver to get the signals changed and shift the train onto the slow line so it could halt at platform two at Huntingdon at 7.44pm.

One of the suspects shouted “kill me, kill me” as he was arrested by armed police, according to a taxi driver who was waiting at Huntingdon station.

Viorel Turturica, 42, told Mail Online he was waiting to pick up a passenger when he saw people running out of Huntingdon station.

He then saw a man dressed in black holding a large kitchen knife running past his car. “The police arrive seconds later and I can hear him shouting ‘kill me, kill me, kill me’ to them,” he said. “They then taser him and as soon as he is down they say to him, ‘Drop your weapon.’”

A witness has told how one passenger confronted the attacker.

Alistair Day, 58, who boarded the King’s Cross train after watching the Nottingham Forest football match against Manchester United, said he initially thought the incident was a Halloween or student prank.

Realising that people had been hurt, he sought safety in the buffet car with other passengers. After the door was locked, he saw “a man at the window with his knife”.

Day told the BBC that another man on the train in a Nottingham Forest tracksuit declared: “I’m gonna go confront him.”

“He wasn’t the biggest guy and we tried to stop him,” Day said. He later saw the same man lying on the platform “flat-out, covered in blood”.

Charlie Newcombe, a pastor at Christ Church Huntingdon, said the community “has been rocked”.

Leaving flowers at the station, he said the church was “praying very much for everyone involved this morning”.

He confirmed that nobody in the church had been involved because the train was not scheduled to stop at Huntingdon.

“We are shocked,” he said. “There’s also a sense of people looking after each other.

“Huntingdon is a wonderful community, a strong community, and we’ve been brought into something that we never would have imagined.”

The Huntingdon train attack is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents involving multiple stabbings.

Last week three people were stabbed in Uxbridge, west London. Wayne Broadhurst, who was walking his dog, died from his injuries and an Afghan citizen has been charged with his murder.

A month ago Jihad Al-Shamie was shot dead after he launched a knife attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester.

However, the government has sought to emphasise that police-recorded knife crime is falling. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, posted statistics on Thursday showing an almost 20 per cent fall in knife murders in a year.

Government sources said that there would be a “surge” of extra policing, including on board trains, in the coming days.

The focus is expected to be on major terminals such as Birmingham, York, Leeds, Manchester and London, with police being “across as much of the network as they can”, the source said.

The source added that this would continue on Monday and Tuesday as a minimum, including on board trains running on the east coast main line.

“This is not usual, they usually focus on stations, but it is important to reassure passengers,” the source said.

Alex, a Huntingdon resident, was driving home when he realised the road was blocked on Saturday.

“I saw about 60 emergency vehicles and the first thing that came to my mind was something really serious was happening,” the 32-year-old said. “I saw potential victims of trauma wrapped in silver. They were standing in the street. It was chaos.”

Alex, who did not give his surname, said he was in shock this morning.

“I think times like these require you to step back,” he added. “You can’t prepare for something like that.

“[Violence] is absolutely unacceptable and it’s got no place in society.”

As armed officers raced down the platform at Huntingdon station, British Transport Police announced a major incident and soon declared the “Plato” procedure.

Also known as Operation Plato, this is a code word that notifies about 15 partner agencies of a “no-notice marauding terrorist attack”.

It is a set of operating procedures agreed by the Home Office and emergency services, which pulls in resources from counterterror specialist firearms officers, the military, neighbouring police forces, ambulance workers and NHS trusts.

Once the police make the declaration, it invokes an immediate response of sharing information among partner agencies’ emergency control rooms.

British Transport Police has since rescinded the Plato declaration and said counterterrorism police were “supporting” the investigation.

The public will be concerned to see that an attack such as this has happened on a train, the regional mayor for Peterborough and Cambridgeshire has said.

The Conservative mayor Paul Bristow told Times Radio: “This is the first time that certainly I can recall this type of incident occurring on a train. And a train is an unusual place for this to happen because it’s an enclosed environment. You can’t exactly get off until the train stops and so that’s going to be of some concern to people.

“The quick thinking of the train crew, I think, and the emergency services, prevented this incident from being any more horrific than it was.

“But I think as time goes on, people will quite rightly be wanting to understand a broader response to this type of incident.”

Passengers will see “a high visibility presence” of police at railway stations and on trains today following the stabbings on a train near Huntingdon, the transport secretary has said

Heidi Alexander said in a statement: “I am receiving regular updates from the British Transport Police, who are leading the response to this awful incident, as well as LNER and other organisations involved.

“Trains are now running in the area. However, Huntingdon station remains closed with trains passing through.

“Passengers will see a high visibility presence of officers at stations and on trains throughout today who are there to reassure the public.”

The head of a transport union has called on the government to review security after the train stabbings to “ensure nothing like this happens again”.

Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staff’s Association, said: “This is an appalling attack on passengers and rail workers alike.

“Our immediate priority is for the welfare of the injured and all those traumatised by what has happened.

“Transport networks must be safe for everyone, both the travelling public and the staff who serve them.

“We call on the operator and government to act swiftly to review security, to support the affected workers and to ensure nothing like this happens again.”

Juliet Corby, who lives near the station, was walking past the scene on Saturday on her way to a restaurant when she saw police and paramedics running into the station.

Corby, 59, said she initially thought it had been a bomb attack because of the scale of the response. “We saw the ambulances, we saw the police cars, we saw police running into the train station,” she said. “We were like, what is going on? We saw them all running in with the paramedics, with their backpacks. So it was all pretty surreal, really.

“I thought in the first instance it must have been a bomb attack or something because there were so many police cars and ambulances.

“We knew that it must have been something terrible because the train was just stationary. It was quite scary.”

Passengers who protected others during the knife attack “embody the best of Britain”, Sir Ed Davey said.

The Liberal Democrat leader said: “My thoughts are with all those affected: the victims who we are all praying will pull through, their loved ones and everyone who witnessed such a shocking event.

“At a moment of such fear and chaos, we also saw extraordinary bravery. The stories of passengers who stepped forward to protect others embody the very best of Britain, a country where ordinary people stand together in the face of danger, look out for one another, and refuse to be cowed by violence.”

The home secretary confirmed the attack was not being treated as terrorism, as she paid tribute to the bravery of staff and passengers on the train after the stabbing.

Shabana Mahmood wrote on social media: “After last night’s horrific attack, my thoughts today are with the victims, their friends and family.

“I would also like to pay tribute to the exceptional bravery of staff and passengers on the train.

“We now know this attack is not being treated as terrorism, and that two British-born, British nationals have been arrested.

“The investigation is ongoing, and I am receiving regular updates from the police.”

The King has said he and the Queen were “truly appalled” to hear of the “dreadful knife attack” which took place on Saturday on a train near Huntingdon.

In a message released by Buckingham Palace, the King said: “My wife and I were truly appalled and shocked to hear of the dreadful knife attack that took place on board a train in Cambridgeshire last night.

“Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with all those affected, and their loved ones. We are particularly grateful to the emergency services for their response to this awful incident.”

Two people remain in a life-threatening condition after the train stabbings and two British men are being held on suspicion of attempted murder, but the incident is not being declared as terrorism.

Superintendent John Loveless, from the British Transport Police, speaking on the street just outside the station, said after the “shocking incident” that two men who were born in the UK were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and were currently being held in separate police stations.

The suspects were a 32-year-old black British citizen and a 35-year-old British citizen of Caribbean descent, he added.

Loveless said: “Ten people were taken to hospital by ambulance and another person self-presented later that evening. While nine were initially believed to have life-threatening injuries, following assessment and treatment, four — thankful to say — have been discharged. However, two people remain in a life-threatening condition.

“At this stage there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident.”

Kemi Badenoch said there was “clearly something going wrong with our society”, after the train stabbings.

The Conservative leader told the BBC: “I know many people will be asking the same questions that I’m thinking of right now, which is: ‘why is it that despite so much activity, so much done, legislation to ban knives, so much investment in mental health, so much more, we’re seeing more and more violence on our streets?’

“There’s clearly something going wrong in our society right now, which I believe all politicians of all parties need to have a conversation about.

“We cannot be a country where people are innocently going about their business and facing this level of violent crime”, she added. “It’s abhorrent, and it’s not something that we used to see before. What is causing it?”

A former head of counterterrorism at the Ministry of Defence has said the involvement of counterterrorism police in investigating the stabbings at Huntingdon does not mean it will be declared a terrorist incident.

Chip Chapman told Times Radio: “It is far too early to say this is a terrorist attack and the involvement of the CT [counterterrorism] police does not mean an incident is terrorism, they are often drawn in following mass murders or mass incidents where the initial motive is uncertain.

“Often there is no terrorist declaration because of the legal restrictions aimed at trying to stop juries being influenced.”

Police are due to give an update on the investigation into the train stabbings from 10am.

Superintendent John Loveless of the British Transport Police is expected to issue a statement outside the cordon at Huntingdon train station.

The MP for Huntingdon said it is “vital” that information about the suspects is released to “stop any misinformation and speculation from being spread”.

Ben Obese-Jecty told the PA news agency: “All I know is that two people have been arrested and were arrested at the scene. That’s as much information that has been pushed out at the moment.

“I would hope that British Transport Police are going to release some more information about the suspects when they do their press conference later on this morning. I think it’s vital that some information comes out to stop any misinformation and speculation from being spread.

He added he had seen “hundreds of comments” online speculating about the motive and background of the attacker.

The defence secretary said it was too early to say whether the train stabbings were a terrorist attack and said it was “not helpful” to speculate.

Asked whether it was a terrorist attack, John Healey told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Well, the details are still emerging. The investigation is going, it’s an early stage, and so it’s not helpful for me to speculate.

“The counterterrorism police are supporting the investigation that’s being led by the local police, and I know that they will let us, the public, have as much information as soon as they can.”

The UK’s terror threat level remains unchanged following the stabbings in Huntingdon, the defence secretary said, adding that he took the same train route just hours before the attack.

John Healey told Sky News: “This was the very service that my wife and I, Jackie, took just a few hours before this attack. It’s the service I use every week to get home to Rotherham, so I can’t begin to imagine how shocked and frightened those passengers were.”

Asked by Sir Trevor Phillips if the attack had changed the UK’s terror threat level, he said it remained “substantial” — meaning an attack is considered “likely” — as before.

Nigel Farage has said the public needs to know who carried out the stabbings “as soon as possible”, as the police continue to hold two suspects.

The Reform UK leader posted on X to say: “The attack last night in Huntington was horrific.”

“My thoughts are with all the victims and their families”, he added. “We need to know who committed these awful attacks as soon as possible.”

The LNER train where the violence unfolded last night remains at Huntingdon station, which has been cordoned off by police as their investigation continues.

A number of officers are positioned around the station, outside of which people’s belongings can be seen scattered on the ground. Other emergency personnel are also on the scene.

The road directly outside the station’s car park, the A1307, is shut and a number of police vehicles are on the road.

The Huntingdon train attack was an “isolated incident”, the defence secretary said as he urged the public to “get on with their lives”.

John Healey told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “Well, for me, the British public are pretty tough, pretty resilient.

“We’re not going to be deflected from carrying out our everyday lives.

“And that’s right, I don’t want people to feel that they can’t or they shouldn’t, and they will.

“But I think it requires us all to be more vigilant, more vigilant about our electronic devices, about the risk of cyberfraud and cyberattack and just be more vigilant for looking out for others around us.”

Police urged the public not to speculate on “the causes of the incident”.

Chief superintendent Chris Casey, the commander for London and southeast England, said: “This is a shocking incident and first and foremost my thoughts are with those who have been injured this evening and their families.

“We’re conducting urgent enquiries to establish what has happened, and it could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything further. At this early stage it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.

“Our response is ongoing at the station and will be for some time. Cordons are in place and trains are not currently running through the area, and there are also some road closures.”

Witnesses have spoken to The Times of seeing a man with a large knife and passengers hiding in the toilets to escape the rampage. One said there was “blood everywhere” and people were getting “stamped” on by others as they tried to flee. The witness said: “I heard some people shouting we love [you].”

One man, who gave his name as Gavin, told Sky News he believed he saw the suspect tasered before he was arrested.

Olly Foster told the BBC he initially heard people shouting “run, run, there’s a guy literally stabbing everyone”, and believed it might have been a prank related to Halloween. An older man “blocked” the attacker from stabbing a younger girl, leaving him with injuries to his head and neck, Foster said, adding other passengers used their clothing to try and stem the bleeding.

The British Transport Police have confirmed that officers responding to the mass stabbing at one point declared “Plato”, which is the national code word used by emergency services when responding to a “marauding terror attack”.

This declaration was later rescinded, the force said.

Cambridgeshire police said they were called at 7.39pm on Saturday to reports that multiple people had been stabbed on a train, which was arriving at Huntingdon station. Armed police from the force, which is headquartered less than a mile away from Huntingdon station, arrived five minutes later and boarded the train, where officers arrested the two suspects.

British Transport Police were called at 7.42pm and are now leading the investigation. Police secured the train and were on the scene with dog units.

Two men were arrested after armed officers responded to emergency calls reporting the attack.

One witness, who gave his name as Gavin, told Sky News he believed a suspect was tasered before being arrested. He said he was told the witness was “a black male in all black”.

Police have not yet confirmed the ages of those arrested or what they have been arrested on suspicion of.

Ten people were injured in a mass stabbing on the Doncaster to London train on Saturday night, including nine who were said to be in a life-threatening condition.

The British Transport Police (BTP), which is leading the investigation, said shortly after midnight that there had been no immediate fatalities.

David Horne, managing director of LNER, praised the emergency services for their “quick and professional response and the care they have provided to those injured”.