Blood was “everywhere” and passengers “hid inside washrooms” as multiple people were stabbed aboard a London-bound train on Saturday evening, witnesses told local media. Police and emergency services swarmed
the Huntingdon station in Cambridgeshire after the train was stopped, arresting two people in connection with the attack.
“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” British Transport Police said on X, confirming that “two people have been arrested.”
The train, travelling from Doncaster in the northeast to London’s King’s Cross Station, was packed with weekend travellers. Police said ten people were hospitalised, adding that nine of them had suffered “life-threatening injuries.”
“A major incident has been declared and @TerrorismPolice are supporting our investigation,” the British Transport Police said, suggesting the probe could involve counterterrorism officers.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a man with a large knife on the platform after the train was halted, before police tasered and restrained him.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the “appalling” incident “deeply concerning.”
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their swift response,” he said in a statement on X.
Knife crime has emerged as one of the UK’s most persistent law and order challenges, with police data showing a steady rise in violent offences involving blades over the past decade.
According to the Office for National Statistics of the UK, England and Wales recorded more than 50,000 knife-related offences last year, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2013. London remains the worst affected, but police forces across smaller towns and suburbs of the UK are also reporting spikes.
Nearly 60,000 blades have been either “seized or surrendered” in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Carrying a knife in public can be punishable by up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 percent in the last year.
