Man charged with 11 attempted murders after UK train stabbings

Minister praises 'incredible bravery' of train staff who confronted attacker

A forensic police officer examines the LNER train at Huntingdon Station in Cambridgeshire after a stabbing attack there on Saturday. Getty Images

A man has been charged with 11 attempted murders after a knife attack on a train in Cambridgeshire.

Five people remain in hospital after the violence on Saturday night, when an attacker made his way through a busy train stabbing passengers.

The Crown Prosecution Service said a “huge volume of evidence including CCTV” had been gathered and the number of charges would be kept under review as this progresses.

Police are understood to be investigating all circumstances, including whether mental health was a factor but it is not believed to have been a terrorist incident.

Anthony Williams has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder related to Saturday’s 6.25pm service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross plus an alleged attack on another train earlier that day. He is also charged with one count of actual bodily harm and two counts of possession of a bladed article, British Transport Police said.

Mr Williams, 32, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, will appear at Peterborough Magistrates on Monday morning, police said.

An increased police presence at stations, including St Pancras in London, after a number of people were stabbed on a train on Saturday in Cambridgeshire. PA

A railway worker who showed “incredible bravery” to save lives during the mass stabbing is critically injured but in stable condition in hospital, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Monday.

The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) staff member, whose name has not been made public, was injured while trying to protect passengers.

Ms Alexander said: “There are people who are alive today because of his actions and his bravery.”

She told Sky News: “He went into work that morning to work on that train service, to serve passengers and he put himself in harm’s way.

“He went in to do his job and he left work a hero.”

Ms Alexander said the suspect was not known to counter-terrorism police or MI5, the UK's domestic intelligence service, but would not say if he had contact with mental health services.

She told Times Radio: “I’m not going to speculate about his motivations or the events that led up to the incident.”

She added: “What I can tell you is that he was not known to counter-terrorism police, he was not known to the security services, and he was not known to the Prevent programme.”

Passengers have spoken of the horror which unfolded shortly after the train left Peterborough station, with one woman saying she felt “very lucky” to be unharmed after begging the man to spare her life when he chased after her.

Police officers and a dog handler work on the platform alongside an LNER Azuma train at Huntingdon Station in Huntingdon, eastern England, on November 1, 2025, following a stabbing on a train. AFP

Dayna Arnold, 48, told the Mirror newspaper: “I fell down and I just said: ‘Please don’t kill me.’ Something shifted in his face and he just carried on. He said: ‘The devil is not going to win.'”

Olly Foster, who witnessed the incident, told the BBC an older man “blocked” the attacker from stabbing a younger girl, leaving him with injuries to his head and neck.

He said other passengers used their clothing to try to stem the bleeding.

Thomas McLachlan, 19, from London, told BBC News he saw people leaving the train “drenched in blood”.

Other passengers spoke of hiding in train toilets and the buffet car to protect themselves during the rampage.

Transport Police declared a major incident when the train came to a stop in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, after passengers pulled the emergency alarms and two men were arrested eight minutes after police were called at 7.42pm.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to make a statement about the attack in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.

Ms Alexander said there would be an increased police presence at stations but stressed the railways were safe.

“Public transport generally is a low-crime environment – and this incident was absolutely horrific on Saturday night, and I don’t want to take away from that in any way – but generally, our trains are some of the most safest forms of public transport anywhere in the world,” she said.

“For every one million passenger journeys that are made, there are 27 crimes.”