TL;DR
- A 61-year-old victim, Stephen Crean, sustained multiple injuries in the Cambridgeshire train stabbings and emphasised the need to protect other passengers by fighting back against the assailant.
- Suspect Anthony Williams has been charged with 11 counts of attempted murder, with police investigating his potential involvement in three other incidents, including the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy.
- Train staff, including the driver, are being praised for their heroic actions during the chaos, with one staff member critically injured while trying to protect passengers.
Huntingdon train stabbing victim ‘didn’t have much choice’ but to fight back | UK News
A victim of the Cambridgeshire train stabbings has spoken of the injuries he suffered, as an investigation was launched into whether the suspect was involved in other incidents.
Stephen Crean said he “didn’t have much choice” but to fight back as the knifeman approached him on the LNER service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross on Saturday.
The 61-year-old said passengers ran into the buffet car after a young woman ran through his carriage shouting: “Knife, knife, there’s a man with a big knife.”
Anthony Williams has been charged with 11 counts of attempted murder over the mass stabbing.
During the incident, Mr Crean said he “got caught” by the knife on his fingers, head, torso and arm – and he will need plastic surgery.
The football fan, who had been returning home after watching Nottingham Forest’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United, said he had no chance to escape as the suspect approached.
He said he managed to get into a train toilet after the confrontation.
Speaking about his decision to fight back, Mr Crean said: “Probably not many people would’ve done it, but then you’re leaving people behind you vulnerable.”
Armed officers were deployed to Huntingdon station after being alerted to the attack at 7.42pm on Saturday.
They detained a man within eight minutes of the first 999 call.
Police reviewing three further incidents after attack
Williams, 32, of no fixed abode, was remanded in custody on Monday when he appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court.
He has also been charged with one count of attempted murder over another attack hours earlier at a London station.
British Transport Police said a victim suffered facial injuries after being attacked at 12.46am with a knife on a train at Pontoon Dock station on the Docklands Light Railway.
And Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said police in Cambridgeshire were investigating whether the same man committed “further offences” earlier.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary said they are reviewing the suspect’s involvement in three further incidents, including the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy.
These include at a barber in the Fletton area of Peterborough, which reported a man with a knife on Friday evening, and again on Saturday morning, when police were not able to locate the suspect.
A third incident “that police also believe may be linked” involved a 14-year-old who was stabbed on Friday evening by a man with a knife in the city centre, the statement added. The teenager suffered minor injuries.
The force has referred itself to the police watchdog.
British Transport Police will include the stabbing of the 14-year-old and the incident at the barber’s shop as part of its investigation into the train attack.