A British man has been hailed as a hero for saving a young girl amid a frenzied knife attack on a train in the UK over the weekend.
On Saturday (November 1), cops and emergency services descended on the Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, train platform following reports of a mass stabbing at around 7.39pm.
It is reported 10 victims sustained injuries from a man allegedly wielding a ‘large knife’ on the train to London as it departed Peterborough, forcing the train to make an unscheduled stop.
Nine of the victims are said to have suffered life-threatening injuries, though Supt. John Loveless gave some good news in an update today (Sunday, November 2), confirming four of the victims have since been discharged from hospital.
However, two people remain in a life-threatening condition.
Armed police took down the alleged knifeman with a Taser eight minutes after 999 calls were made.
Two people, a Black British national, 32, and a 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Now, eyewitnesses are coming forward with their harrowing accounts of what unfolded in the frenzied attack, with one recalling how a heroic older man managed to shield a young girl from the suspect.
According to Olly Foster, the unidentified man suffered wounds to his head and neck while protecting the girl.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “By the time I got to the end of the carriage, I was actually at the back of it and there was about six of us.
“There was a girl, bless her, who was really really in a bit of state because the guy actually tried to stab her. And one of the older guys, who’s an absolute hero, blocked it with his head.
“We’re giving him jackets to keep the pressure on the blood.”
Foster added from where he was sitting in the coach, people began pushing through the car and leaving behind a trial of blood ‘all over the chair[s]’ in a bid to flee the attacker.
When he was encouraged to ‘run’ by fellow passengers who told him ‘there’s a guy stabbing literally everyone and everything’, Foster said he was in disbelief and initially thought it was a Halloween prank.
Travelers then located a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey and reportedly used it to defend themselves against the suspected assailant.
“We had a Jack Daniels bottle between us and that was it,” he continued. “So we’re sitting there with one Jack Daniels bottle looking down this carriage, praying someone doesn’t walk down with a knife or a gun.”
Another passenger on board the LNER train called Gavin recalled to Sky News the moment he heard of a knifeman on board, saying he encountered an ‘extremely bloodied’ passenger trying to ‘get away from the suspect.’
“That person, when we pulled in, they were basically on the floor; we couldn’t progress further down the train because that person ended up collapsing.”
Gavin said when the train came to a stop, armed police descended on the suspect and tasered him.
The accounts come as counter-terrorism officials are currently on the case to ascertain what happened in the ‘major incident’, while police are calling for calm, stating it would ‘not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident’ at this time.
Police initially declared Code Plato in the wake of the stabbing, a national code word used by British personnel when responding to a ‘marauding terror attack,’ though this has since been rescinded.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also dubbed the ‘appalling incident’ as ‘deeply concerning’, adding: “My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response.”