Man charged over U.K. train stabbing that wounded 11 people

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson gives an update on the investigation into a stabbing spree on board a commuter train in England.

LONDON — U.K. police on Monday charged a 32-year-old man with attempted murder over a mass stabbing attack on a train that wounded 11 people, and revealed that he may have stabbed two other people in the 24 hours before the attack.

British Transport Police said Anthony Williams is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one of actual bodily harm and one of possession of a bladed article over the attack on Saturday.

He is also charged with attempted murder over an earlier incident at Pontoon Dock light rail station in London just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, in which a victim “suffered facial injuries after being attacked with a knife” by an assailant who fled the scene.

Another police force, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said it is investigating whether Williams was involved in three incidents in the city of Peterborough -- a Friday evening stabbing in which a 14-year-old boy received minor injuries and two reports of a man with a knife at a barber shop on Friday evening and Saturday morning. In all three cases, the suspect quickly left the scene and police did not detain anyone.

Police say they are not treating the train stabbings as an act of terror and are not looking for other suspects. A second man initially arrested as a suspect was released without charge on Sunday.

Williams, a British citizen living in Peterborough, made a brief appearance at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

Flanked by four security officers as he stood in the dock wearing a gray prison tracksuit and handcuffs, was ordered detained until his next hearing on Dec. 1. He was not asked to enter pleas.

The charge of actual bodily harm is for allegedly hitting a police officer and breaking his nose after Williams’ arrest.

Passengers describe panic during train attack

The minutes-long stabbing attack spree spread fear and panic through a train bound from Doncaster in northern England to London on Saturday evening. The train was about halfway through its journey and had just departed from a stop at Peterborough when police began receiving calls about people being stabbed onboard.

Passengers described scenes of panic as bloodied travelers raced down the train to get away from the knifeman. Stephen Crean, 61, told the BBC he was slashed across the hand and head as he tussled with the attacker, who asked him, “Do you want to die?”

Eleven people were treated in hospital. The most seriously wounded victim is a member of train staff who tried to stop the attacker and suffered “grievous injuries,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said. He is hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

“On Saturday he went to work to do his job. Today he is a hero and forever will be,” Mahmood told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Four other victims remained in a hospital on Monday, including Jonathan Gjoshe, a player with soccer team Scunthorpe United. The team said he has “non-life-threatening injuries.”

Security at train stations is stepped up

Williams was arrested when the train made an emergency stop in the town of Huntingdon, about 75 miles (120 kilometres) north of London. Police say he was detained within eight minutes of officers receiving the first emergency calls.

Authorities said the attack was an isolated incident but stepped up security on the railway, with armed police officers on patrol Monday at major train stations.

The government rejected calls for increased security measures such as airport-style passenger and baggage screening to be introduced at Britain’s 3,500 railway stations, saying that wouldn’t be “proportionate or practical.”

In the U.K, which has strict gun-control laws, almost half of all homicides involve a knife or sharp instrument. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left government has pledged to reduce knife crime and has tightened rules for purchasing knives and banned some kinds of blades.

It claims to have had some success, with the total number of knife crimes down 5% and knife killings falling 18% in the year to June 2025 from the previous 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press