‘Heroic’ actions of train employee and driver saved many lives in England stabbing attack, police say

By Lauren Kent, CNN

London (CNN) — There were just 11 minutes between the moment British police received an emergency call about a stabbing on a train heading to London and the moment the suspect was arrested.

Eleven victims were hospitalized in the attack, including one railway worker who is in critical but stable condition, according to authorities.

Officials have said the casualties would have been far worse if not for the actions of the driver who arranged for the train to be diverted to a nearby station, and a “heroic” railway worker who tried to stop the attacker on the train.

The high-speed London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train, which was taking passengers from northern England to the British capital on Saturday evening, had just left Peterborough station in Cambridgeshire when the attack took place. The first emergency call to Cambridgeshire police was at approximately 7:39 p.m. local time. By 7:50 p.m., officers had arrested the 32-year-old British suspect on the platform at Huntingdon station, police told CNN.

The critically injured train worker has not yet been publicly identified.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday paid tribute to the worker, saying that they “ran toward danger, confronting the attacker for a sustained period of time, and stopped his advance through the train.”

British Transport Police (BTP) said that “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.”

“The bravery that he showed was utterly remarkable… he put himself in harm’s way,” British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC on Monday. “There are people who are alive today who wouldn’t be alive had it not been for his actions.”

Five other casualties have now been discharged from hospital, BTP said in an update on Sunday.

Alexander also paid tribute to emergency services and, in particular, the train driver, “who had the presence of mind to phone the signals in Network Rail and get the train onto that slow line into Huntingdon station and a place of safety.”

The high-speed train was scheduled to pass through the station on a fast line, but driver and signalers quickly arranged for it to divert onto a slow track so it could stop alongside the platform.

Open-source data shows that a signaler made the first alteration to the train’s planned route at 7:40 p.m. local time – only one minute after police received the first call about the attack. Another local train was already at the platform at Huntingdon – once it had left, the signaler was able to guide the LNER train safely into the platform where it stopped by 7:44 p.m.

Huntington station happens to be around the corner from the Cambridgeshire Constabulary police headquarters, and both response officers and armed officers were quickly on the scene.

Armed police officers were seen running down the platform at the station, evacuating passengers while looking to neutralize any ongoing threat, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported.

Train driver Andrew Johnson told ITV News: “I was only doing my job. It was my colleague who is in hospital who was the brave one.” Johnson, from Peterborough, is reported by British media to have served in the Royal Navy for 17 years.

Johnson has been praised for remaining calm as the attack unfolded and choosing not to make an emergency stop between stations, where it would have been more difficult for authorities to respond. Instead, the swift decisions by Johnson and the signaler enabled the train to be stopped at Huntingdon; the next opportunity would have been a station seven minutes further down the line.

Train drivers in the United Kingdom have extensive route training and are required to know the location of every signal and track layout on their route, including in the dark. Signalers have similar detailed knowledge.

Nigel Roebuck, an organizer for the train drivers’ union ASLEF and a lead officer with LNER, told British media that “the driver did everything he was trained to do, at the right time and in the right way.”

“He showed real courage, real dedication, and real determination in the most difficult of circumstances,” Roebuck added. “Our thoughts tonight are with his colleague who is still in intensive care.”

Suspect charged with multiple attempted murders

Police are working to determine a motive for the attack but said that there was no evidence to suggest it was terror related. Mahmood said the suspect was not known to security services, counter-terror police or the Home Office’s Prevent program, a central plank of Britain’s strategy to combat terrorism.

The man apprehended, Anthony Williams, 32, of Peterborough, was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of bladed article. He was also charged with another count of attempted murder in connection with an incident that happened earlier on Saturday at a station in London. Williams was remanded in custody after appearing in court on Monday.

While in court, he wasn’t asked to enter pleas and he said “no fixed abode” when he was asked about his address, according to the UK’s PA Media. His next appearance in court is due to be on December 1.

A second man was initially arrested at the scene, but he was later released without charge.

Meanwhile, three more incidents believed to be linked to the attacker took place in Peterborough on Friday evening and Saturday morning, according to Cambridgeshire police. One of those included a stabbing in Peterborough city center, in which a 14-year-old was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Witnesses describe running from attack

Passenger Wren Chambers told the BBC she initially “heard some screaming and shouting” coming from a carriage or two down, before a man ran down the train with a “very clear wound,” bleeding heavily from his arm.

At first she thought it was a Halloween prank, but it became clear it was a genuine attack when the man shouted that someone had a knife and more people came running down the train.

People fled through the carriages seeking safety, with some attempting to barricade themselves in the train restrooms, said other witnesses. Other passengers were able to hide themselves in the train’s buffet carriage.

Another witness, Thomas McLachlan, told the BBC: “There were definitely many heroes on that day, many kind people who just wanted to help those around them – people handing out blankets, hand warmers.”

McLachlan said he saw one injured man who had been slashed in the face. He and another witness told local media that he heard the man had been “trying to protect a young girl from being attacked” when he was stabbed.

One of the victims still in the hospital is Scunthorpe United player Jonathan Gjoshe, the soccer club said in a statement, which said he sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Little other information has been given at this stage about other victims, including their ages.

LNER managing director David Horne said in a statement that he would like to recognize the “driver, crew and our operational response colleagues for their bravery and quick actions.”

CNN’s Sophie Tanno and Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report.

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