‘Blood everywhere’: UK police arrest two after multiple people stabbed on train

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Police officers and members of the Emergency services work alongside an LNER Azuma train at Huntingdon Station following a stabbing on a train in Huntingdon, eastern England November 1, 2025. — AFP pic

HUNTINGDON (UK), Nov 2 — UK police said they had arrested two suspects yesterday after “a number of people” were taken to hospital and a “large-scale” emergency response was mobilised following a stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.

“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” British Transport Police said on X, adding that “two people have been arrested.”

Cambridgeshire police said: “A number of people have been taken to hospital.”

A witness described seeing a man with a large knife and told The Times newspaper there was “blood everywhere” as people hid in the washrooms.

Some passengers were getting “stamped on by others” as they tried to run, and the witness said they “heard some people shouting we love you.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the “appalling” incident “deeply concerning.”

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said in a statement on X.

“Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” he added, while Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood confirmed two people had been taken into custody.

Multiple patients

Armed police were at the scene after being alerted around 7.40pm local time (1940 GMT), and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, a market town in eastern England, police said.

Dozens of emergency vehicles were deployed at the station, and people were seen being led away in space blankets, an AFP photographer reported.

Local ambulance services mobilised a “large-scale response” to the station, including ambulances, air ambulances and tactical commanders.

“We can confirm we have transported multiple patients to hospital,” the East of England Ambulance Service said on X.

Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said all its railway lines had been closed while emergency services dealt with the incident at Huntingdon station.

LNER, which runs trains along the east of England and Scotland, urged passengers not to travel, warning of “major disruption.”

It serves major stops including London, Peterborough, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh, and trains are often very busy and packed with travellers.

The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Paul Bristow, said on X: “Hearing reports of horrendous scenes on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,” adding that his “thoughts are with everyone affected.”

Knife crime

Knife crime in England and Wales has been steadily rising since 2011, according to official government data.

While Britain has some of the strictest gun controls in the world, rampant knife crime has been branded a “national crisis” by Starmer.

His Labour government has tried to rein in their use.

Nearly 60,000 blades have been either “seized or surrendered” in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

Carrying a knife in public can already result in up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 per cent in the past year.

Two people were killed — one as a result of misdirected police gunfire — and others wounded in a stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester at the start of October in an attack that shook the local Jewish community and the country. — Bernama