“He was asking to be killed when he was surrounded by the police – ‘kill me, kill me, kill me’,” said Turturica, a taxi driver who was in his vehicle at the station.
British Transport Police superintendent John Loveless said the suspect was a 32-year-old black British national. He was not known to counter-terrorism police or security services, Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said, adding that she could not comment on whether he had been known to mental health services.
Police named the suspect as Anthony Williams of Peterborough and charged him with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of bladed article. Some witnesses described the weapon as a large kitchen knife. Police released the suspect’s name at 9am on Monday (8pm AEST) and said he would appear in Peterborough Magistrates’ Court later in the day.
‘Nothing to suggest’ terrorism
Police earlier detained a second suspect, a 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent, but released him on Sunday afternoon, hours after the attack on the Saturday night rail service.
“It was reported in good faith to officers responding to the incident that he was involved in the attack, and following enquiries we can confirm that he was not involved,” police said shortly before 6pm on Sunday (5am on Monday, AEDT).
The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon.Credit: AP
“Counter-terrorism policing were initially supporting our investigation,” Loveless said.
“However, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident. This is a British Transport Police investigation, and we continue to work to establish, at pace, the full circumstances and the motivations that have led to this incident.
“At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the cause of this incident.”
Nine victims were said to be facing life-threatening injuries in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but authorities then revised this number to two. Later, they said one person remained in a critical but stable condition.
Five of the 11 people treated in hospital were discharged the day after the attack.
The greatest danger is to the conductor who intervened.
“This casualty is a member of LNER rail staff who was on the train at the time and tried to stop the attacker,” police said.
“Detectives have reviewed the CCTV from the train, and it is clear his actions were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved many people’s lives.”
Witnesses describe panic
Earlier, Loveless described the emergency response in a briefing to the media shortly after 10.30am on Sunday (9.30pm on Sunday AEDT), amid widespread fears the attack was terrorism.
He said the first call to police was made at 7.42pm on Saturday on the emergency 999 phone line, equivalent to Australia’s Triple Zero. The train was heading south from Doncaster to King’s Cross station in London.
Emergency personnel inspect a train in Huntingdon station.Credit: AP
With the driver and railway authorities diverting the high-speed train to Huntingdon, armed police headed to the station and arrested the suspects within eight minutes of the 999 call.
One witness, Oliver Foster, described passengers rushing through the train to escape the attackers.
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“There was a girl, bless her, who was really, really in a bit of a state,” Foster told the BBC. “Because the guy had actually tried to stab her, and one of the older guys, who was an absolute hero, blocked it with his head. He had this gash on his neck, and we’ve given him, like, a jacket to keep the pressure on.”
Another witness, Amira Ostalski, said she was in the carriage where the attacker began stabbing passengers around him.
“Everyone started shouting: ‘He’s got a knife, there’s blood’,” she told the BBC.
Ostalski said one of the train conductors was stabbed when he tried to protect some of the passengers.
Some passengers managed to reach a buffet car and were able to block the door against the attacker, preventing him from reaching others.
One couple on board the train, Dayna Arnold and Andy Gray, witnessed some of the attacks in their carriage.
Gray told London’s Telegraph he saw a young man with a gash on his arm and several knife wounds, so he helped by using a belt as a makeshift tourniquet.
Arnold said the attacker came after her as she tried to escape.
“I got knocked into some seats. I saw the knifeman running; he came at me with the knife. I said: ‘Please, please don’t’,” she told the Telegraph.
“Then something changed in his eyes and he said: ‘The devil’s not going to win’.”
Separately, a train derailed between Penrith and Oxenholme stations in the mountainous Lake District region in north-west England on Monday. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but railway operator Avanti West Coast said all lines on the route that snakes from London up England’s west side to Scotland were blocked and there would be major travel disruption.
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