How it unfolded: mass stabbing on train leaves two fighting for their lives

The LNER journey was going as planned when, just after departing Peterborough station at 7.30pm on Saturday, the mass stabbing attack began to unfold.

The usual buzz of a Saturday night train became louder and more disorienting for Olly Foster, said when he first heard people shouting “run, run, there’s a guy literally stabbing everyone” he thought it might have been a cruel Halloween prank.

He did not yet know it, but 10 people had been knifed in what would become one of the biggest mass stabbings in Britain.

Passengers were seen hiding in train toilets to escape the rampage, The Times reported, after a man with a large knife made his way through a carriage.

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There was “blood everywhere”, a witness told the newspaper, and growing distress as people tried to flee to safety.

An emergency alarm was pulled and the train driver brought the Class 800 Azuma to a halt in the quiet Cambridgeshire town of Huntingdon.

For Mr Foster, said the incident “felt like forever”, the chaos was unfolding eerily slowly.

At first he did not notice the blood on the red seat moquette fabric, but as people began to panic he found his hand was “covered in blood”.

There was “blood all over the chair” he had leaned on.

One of the victims is thought to be an older man, who Mr Foster said he saw deliberately getting in an attacker’s way to shield a younger girl from the knife, sustaining injuries to his head and neck as he did so.

A passenger, who gave his name as Gavin, told Sky News he saw an “extremely bloodied” victim who collapsed on the carriage floor.

Nine people are fighting for their lives in hospital and another victim is being treated for less serious injuries.

By 7.39pm, Cambridgeshire Constabulary police had been called, with British Transport Police (BTP) on its way by 7.42pm.

Sirens wailed through the November night with ambulance crews and firefighters also called to the scene – Ben Obese-Jecty, the MP for Huntingdon, said he had “never seen as big a response” to an incident.

Armed police were seen running down the platform at the station, trying to safely evacuate passengers and neutralise any ongoing threat.

One suspect is believed to have been shot with a Taser by police after the bloody rampage.

“Essentially, as they got closer to him, started shouting, like, ‘get down get down’,” a passenger told Sky News.

“He then was waving a knife, quite a large knife, and then they detained him.

“I think it was a Taser that got him down in the end.”

Forensic officers in white coveralls were seen taking photographs of the scene on Saturday night, where two people were arrested.

The train still sits stationary at Huntingdon on Sunday morning, as emergency services try to piece together what exactly happened.