Horror scene on a train in the United Kingdom this Saturday, November 1. At least ten people were stabbed and police arrested two British suspects, aged 32 and 25. He ruled out any terrorist motivation behind this knife attack.
• A scene of “incredible violence”
The stabbing took place on a train that left at 6:25 p.m. local time (19:25 French time) from Doncaster station, in the north of England. I was supposed to arrive at London King’s Cross station. But at exactly 7:42 p.m., the police received emergency calls due to an incident that occurred on board.
A scene of “incredible violence,” “unreal,” took place on board the train, according to what a passenger later told The Sun tabloid. Olly Foster, another passenger who testifies from the BBC, explains hearing the people in the carriage shout “Run away! There’s a guy stabbing everyone.” Not believing his ears: he initially thought it was a Halloween-related prank.
The reality of the scene, which “seemed like it would never end,” was very different. Olly Foster said he then saw seats covered in blood and a passenger trying to protect a girl. Witnesses interviewed by The Times newspaper They say they observed a man armed with a large knife and passengers hiding in the train’s bathrooms for protection.
Speaking to the BBC, Wren Chambers confessed to having seen “a person very seriously injured and with blood everywhere.” “It looked like it was going to collapse,” he said. “People were trying to pass off hoodies to bandage his wound.”
• The terrorist motive ruled out by the police
To allow both the police to intervene and the passengers to escape this horrific scene, the train stopped at Huntingdon station, near Cambridge, approximately 120 kilometers north of London. According to Gavin, a witness at the scene cited by Sky News, police officers detained a suspect who was “brandishing a fairly large knife” and “screamed ‘Get down! Get down.'” He was then arrested after using a Taser.
As Superintendent John Loveless, a British transport police official, said, a total of eight minutes passed between the first calls to 999, the emergency and rescue number in the United Kingdom, and the arrest of two suspects. The latter were still in police custody this Sunday at noon.
They are “a 32-year-old black man, of British nationality, and a 35-year-old man, of British nationality and Caribbean origin” and both were born in the United Kingdom, said John Loveless.
“There is nothing to suggest” that this attack is a “terrorist” act, he added. “We continue to work to quickly establish the exact circumstances and motivations that led to this incident.” This Sunday, the train on which the attack occurred was still stopped at Huntingdon station and forensic officers were working at the scene.
• Two people still between life and death
In total, after this attack, ten injured people were taken by ambulance to hospital. Another went to the hospital alone later that night for treatment, John Loveless said.
On Saturday night, nine of the injured were in danger of death. Four of them were able to leave the hospital this Sunday morning. However, two people who were on board the train were still in a state of absolute emergency.
• King Charles III “absolutely horrified and dismayed”
King Charles III said this Sunday that he was “absolutely horrified and dismayed” by the attack on the train. “My wife (Queen Camilla) and I are absolutely horrified and shocked by this terrible knife attack,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “We are especially grateful to the emergency services for their response to this terrible incident.”
The general director of the LNER railway company, David Horne, also said he was “deeply shocked” by the tragedy. The company asked Britons not to travel on its lines this Sunday due to disruptions that are still expected.
Shortly after the attack, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “extremely worrying.” Since coming to power in July 2024, his government has taken several measures to restrict access to edged weapons in a country where firearms legislation is very strict.
Knife violence has increased dramatically over the last fifteen years in England and Wales, according to official figures. Keir Starmer has in the past considered the situation even a “national crisis”.
Source: BFM TV
