Ten people were admitted in hospital, with nine believed to have life-threatening injuries, after a stabbing attack on a train travelling in Cambridgeshire.
Two people were arrested, Cambridgeshire Police said- pictures showed officers responding to the scene at Huntingdon station.
Police declared a “major incident” and confirmed that counter-terrorism officers will support the investigation.
Passengers were travelling on the 18:25 service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross when the attack happened.
An eyewitness told the BBC they saw a man bolting down the carriage with a bloody arm, saying “they’ve got a knife, run”, and a man collapsed on the floor.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “appalling incident” in Cambridgeshire is “deeply concerning” and urges people to follow the advice of local authorities.
Witnesses who were on board the train at the time of the incident described the horrific scenes to the media.
Passengers told Sky News that the stabbing started 10 minutes after the train left Peterborough, and that wounded people were seen running through the train away from somebody with a knife.
A man holding a large knife was later seen on the train platform with armed police pointing their weapons at him, one witness added – saying the man was then tasered and restrained.
One witness said up to 12 people may have been injured, another said they saw between six and eight wounded, according to Sky News.
Knife crime in the UK has “steadily” risen since 2011, according to government statistics.
It’s become such a prominent issue that Sir Keir Starmer has branded it a “national crisis’.
Sixty thousand knives have been either handed over or seized by police as part of a broader government crackdown over the past year. Carrying a knife in public is punishable by up to four years imprisonment.
Saturday night’s Huntingdon train stabbing and last month’s knife attack at a Manchester synagogue, which left two dead, have both made international headlines.
An eyewitness who was on the train at the time of the incident says passengers were left in “pure panic” as bleeding victims called out for help.
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 night-after-Halloween prank.
Within minutes, people started pushing through the carriage, and Foster noticed his hand was “covered in blood” as there was “blood all over the chair” he had leaned on.
An older man “blocked” the attacker from stabbing a younger girl, leaving him with a gash on his head and neck, Foster said. Passengers around him used jackets to try to staunch the bleeding.
He added that the only thing people in his carriage could use against the attacker was a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, leaving them “praying” that he would not enter the carriage.
Although it lasted 10 to 15 minutes in total, Foster said the incident “felt like forever”.
Several MPs have described the scene in Huntingdon as “horrifying”.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wrote on X that his thoughts were with “all those injured and affected”, and called on the police and the government to provide an update on the incident.
Conservative Kevin Hollinrake MP echoed his words, writing that his thoughts were with the victims following the “horrifying scenes in Huntington”.
By Agencies
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