‘Nothing to suggest’ mass stabbing terror-related as police reveal details of two Britons arrested

London: Police have arrested two British-born men after a terrifying knife attack on a train bound for London, leaving two victims fighting for their lives in hospital.

The police said there was “nothing to suggest” it was a terror attack but confirmed the two men were facing charges of attempted murder, while 11 victims had been treated at hospital.

In a major update, British Transport Police superintendent John Loveless said two victims remained in hospital with life-threatening injuries, down from earlier assessments of nine in this condition. Four of the nine have been released from hospital.

Loveless said one of the suspects is a 32-year-old man, a black British national. The second is a 35-year-old man, a British national of Caribbean descent.

“They were both arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Both were born in the United Kingdom,” he said.

“Counter terrorism policing were initially supporting our investigation,” he 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.”

Witnesses described chaotic scenes when the train was brought to an emergency halt at a station near the university town of Cambridge, where police arrested two suspects and ambulance officers took 10 bloodied passengers to hospital. Another passenger later self-presented at hospital.

Police said they were called at 7.39pm on Saturday (6.39am Sunday AEDT) after reports that “multiple people” had been stabbed as the train from Doncaster to King’s Cross headed south towards Huntingdon, about 120 kilometres north of London.

Loveless delivered his update from the British Transport Police shortly after 10.30am on Sunday morning (9.30pm AEST) to media crews at Huntingdon, amid widespread fears the attack was terrorism.

While he said there was nothing to suggest it was terrorism, he acknowledged the community fears about safety.

“Passengers will see high visibility presence of police officers at stations and on trains throughout today, up and down the transport network,” he said.

Loveless said the first call to police was made at 7.42pm on Saturday night (6.42am on Sunday, AEST) on the emergency 999 phone line, equivalent to the 000 line in Australia.

He said armed police headed to Huntingdon station, where they boarded the train and arrested the two suspects.

“Within eight minutes of the 999 call being made, two men were brought into police custody,” he said.

Paul Bristow, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said he had heard of “horrendous scenes” during the attack, which began shortly after the train left Peterborough station. Passengers pulled the emergency alarm to alert the driver to the danger.

One witness described wounded passengers running through the carriages to escape the attack.

“They’ve got a knife, I’ve been stabbed,” one of the victims told other passengers during the mayhem, according to one witness who described the events to Sky News UK. This victim collapsed on the floor and was taken to an ambulance once the train came to a stop.

The witness described the victim as “extremely bloodied” from the knife attack. No explanation was given for the attack in any of the accounts in the immediate aftermath of the events.

“There were multiple people that had been stabbed who were making their way down [onto the station], but the suspect had also come off the train as well,” the witness said.

He added that he did not witness the attacks but saw some of the victims.

“The armed police were pointing to the suspect as he came off the train,” he said, adding that he was told the suspect was a male dressed “in all black” who was “waving a large knife” before being taken down.

The second suspect was then halted by police with what appeared to be a Taser, he said.

A second witness, Oliver Foster, also described passengers rushing through the train to escape the attackers.

“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.”

The passengers could not barricade the doors and waited in their carriage without knowing whether the attackers would make their way through the train.

“It felt like literally forever and then the train came to a stop,” Foster said.

Passengers escaped onto the platform at Huntingdon while police and emergency services swarmed onto the station.

A third witness described the scene on the train as “horrific” and “pure chaos”.

“There was blood everywhere,” the witness told The Sun.

“It was a terrible scene, really violent. It was like something from a film. It didn’t feel real and just sparked pure panic on board.”

Knife crime has become a major concern in Britain over several years, with official statistics showing there were 49,600 attacks with sharp instruments in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. This was similar to the levels in previous years, according to a study by the House of Commons Library.

Aware of the community fears about knife crime, the UK government announced three days ago that almost 60,000 knives had been removed from streets in England and Wales through “knife surrender schemes” and police operations.

It said knife homicides had fallen by almost 20 per cent and that the latest admissions data for National Health Service hospitals in England and Wales showed a 10 per cent fall in admissions for knife assaults.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed concern about the “appalling” events.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” he said.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed the arrests and cautioned against conjecture.

“Two suspects have been immediately arrested and taken into custody,” she said.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she was deeply disturbed by the reports from Huntingdon.

“This is an absolutely horrific attack and my thoughts are with all those affected, including the emergency responders at the scene,” she said.

With Reuters, AP

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