Just 11 minutes passed between the time British police received an emergency call about a stabbing on a train heading to London and the time they arrested the suspect.
Eleven victims were hospitalized in the attack, including a railroad worker who is in critical but stable condition, according to authorities.
Authorities have said the victims would have been much worse if not for the actions of the driver who arranged to divert the train to a nearby station and a “heroic” rail worker who tried to stop the attacker on the train.
The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) high-speed train, which was carrying passengers from the north of England to the British capital on Saturday afternoon, had just left Peterborough station in Cambridgeshire when the attack occurred. The first emergency call to Cambridgeshire Police came at approximately 7:39 pm local time. By 7:50 p.m., officers had arrested the 32-year-old British suspect on the platform at Huntingdon station, police told CNN.
The seriously injured train worker has not yet been publicly identified.
British Transport Police (BTP) said: “Detectives reviewed the train’s CCTV and it is clear that their actions were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved many people’s lives.”
“The bravery he showed was absolutely remarkable… he put himself in danger,” British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC on Monday. “There are people who are alive today who would not be alive if it had not been for his actions.”
Five other victims have been discharged from hospital, BTP said in an update on Sunday.
Alexander also paid tribute to the emergency services and, in particular, the train driver, “who had the presence of mind to call the signals at Network Rail and get the train on that slow line to Huntingdon station and to safety.”
The high-speed train was scheduled to pass through the station on a fast track, but the driver and signalmen quickly arranged for it to be diverted onto a slow track so that it could stop on the platform.
The route was changed at 7:40 p.m. local time, just one minute after police received the first call about the attack. Another local train was already on the Huntingdon platform; once it left, signalmen were able to guide the LNER train safely onto the platform, where it stopped at 7:44 p.m.
Huntington station is just around the corner from Cambridgeshire Police headquarters, and both response officers and armed officers quickly arrived at the scene.
Armed police officers were seen running across the station platform, evacuating passengers as they sought to neutralize any ongoing threats, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported.
Machinist Andrew Johnson told ITV News: “I was just doing my job. The brave one was my colleague who is in hospital.” British media report that Johnson, from Peterborough, served in the Royal Navy for 17 years.
Johnson has been praised for remaining calm as the attack unfolded and for avoiding an emergency stop along the railway line, where it would have been more difficult for authorities to respond to the incident; the next opportunity to stop would have been a station seven minutes ahead.
Train drivers in the UK have extensive route training and must know the location of every signal and track layout on their route, even in the dark. Signalers have similar detailed knowledge.
Nigel Roebuck, organizer of the train drivers’ union ASLEF and leader of LNER, told British media that “the train driver did everything he was trained to do, at the right time and in the right way.”
“He showed true courage, true dedication and true determination under the most difficult circumstances,” Roebuck added. “Our thoughts tonight are with his colleague who is still in intensive care.”
Suspect charged with multiple murder attempts
Police are working to determine the motive for the attack, but said there was no evidence to suggest it was related to terrorism.
The man arrested, Anthony Williams, 32, of Peterborough, was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article. He was also charged with a separate charge of attempted murder in connection with an incident that occurred earlier Saturday at a London station. Williams was remanded in custody after appearing in court on Monday.
While in court, he was not asked to enter a plea and said “of no fixed abode” when asked about his address, according to the UK’s PA Media. His next court appearance will be December 1.
A second man was initially arrested at the scene but was later released without charge.
Meanwhile, three further incidents believed to be linked to the attacker took place in Peterborough on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, according to Cambridgeshire Police. One of them included a stabbing in Peterborough city centre, in which a 14-year-old boy was hospitalized with minor injuries.
The belongings of fleeing passengers are seen on the ground at the entrance to Huntingdon train station on November 2 after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train. – Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Witnesses describe how they fled the attack.
Passenger Wren Chambers told the BBC that she initially “heard some screams and screams” coming from one or two carriages down, before a man ran down the train with a “very clear wound” bleeding profusely from his arm.
At first he thought it was a Halloween prank, but it became clear it was a genuine attack when the man shouted that someone had a knife and more people came running down the train.
People fled through the cars for safety, and some tried to barricade themselves in the train’s bathrooms, other witnesses said. Other passengers were able to hide in the train’s buffet car.
Another witness, Thomas McLachlan, told the BBC: “There were definitely a lot of heroes that day, a lot of kind people who just wanted to help those around them – people handing out blankets and hand warmers.”
McLachlan said he saw an injured man who had been cut on the face. He and another witness told local media they had heard the man had been “trying to protect a young girl from being attacked” when he was stabbed.
One of the victims still in hospital is Scunthorpe United player Jonathan Gjoshe, the football club said in a statement, saying he suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Little information has been provided so far about other victims, including their ages.
LNER chief executive David Horne said in a statement he would like to recognize the “driver, crew and our operational response colleagues for their bravery and quick actions”.
CNN’s Sophie Tanno and Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report.
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