He is the main suspect in an attack of “incredible violence”, according to a passenger on the train between Doncaster and London’s King’s Cross station, in which a knife attack occurred on Saturday, November 1. Anthony Williams was charged this Monday, October 3, with attempted murder with a knife against ten people, and against an eleventh that same day in east London, at a station on the automatic tube network.
The 32-year-old Briton, born in the United Kingdom, appeared before a Peterborough court on Monday, before being remanded in custody. Dressed in a gray tracksuit and handcuffed, he appeared this Monday as “homeless” before the judges. What were your motivations? According to a press release from British Transport Police, “there is nothing to suggest” that this attack was a “terrorist” act. The trail of an isolated incident is favored by investigators.
“Other crimes examined” by authorities
According to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Anthony Williams “is not known to the security services or counter-terrorism police.”
“At the moment, I cannot say much about this man and his past, except to confirm that he is of British nationality and that he was born in this country,” he stated tersely in the House of Commons, specifying that “we must let the police and prosecutors do their job.”
Of the ten people injured in the attack and hospitalized, five had left the hospital on Sunday and the vital prognosis of one of them remains compromised.
Police say Anthony Williams boarded the high-speed train in Peterborough, where he lives. In a statement, the police indicated that they were “also examining other crimes potentially related” to this man, such as the stabbing suffered by a 14-year-old boy this Friday night.
In the videos of this Saturday’s attack we see the man walking calmly along the platform of Huntingdon station, where the train made an emergency stop to allow the police to intervene. The passengers run to get away from the attacker. Then, Anthony Williams, knife in hand, climbs a wooden barrier to reach a parking lot.
This attack occurs a month after the stab attack at a synagogue north of Manchester, where two people died, one of them from a shot by the police who intervened at the scene.
In the summer of 2024, a young British man of Rwandan origin stabbed three young people to death in a dance class in Southport, northern England. Ten other people, including eight children, were injured. And a 22-year-old Afghan refugee was charged this week following a knife attack that left one dead and two injured on Monday near London.
Source: BFM TV
