Huntingdon: Passenger reveals how she escaped death in horror UK train stabbing

A passenger has described the harrowing moment she came face-to-face with the alleged knifeman behind Saturday’s horrific stabbing spree aboard a London-bound train.

The violent attack unfolded midway through a two-hour journey from Doncaster to London’s King’s Cross station, as the train approached Huntingdon, a market town northwest of the university city of Cambridge.

Dayna Arnold, a site manager from East Yorkshire, had boarded the train at Peterborough at 7.30pm with her friend Andy Gray, just minutes before chaos erupted. What began as a casual journey quickly turned into a nightmare.

Ms Arnold and Mr Gray were seated in the same carriage as the suspected attacker, a 32-year-old British man, when he allegedly launched a stabbing rampage.

Speaking to The Sun, Ms Arnold recalled falling to the floor as panicked passengers scrambled through the aisle, fleeing the attacker who was allegedly hurling his weapon into “anyone he could find”.

“I was going with the crowd but then I got knocked into some seats,” she told the outlet.

“I looked back and saw the knifeman running so I slid down to the floor. He came at me with the knife and I begged ‘please don’t’.

“Then something shifted in his face and he just carried on. I feel very fortunate to still be alive.”

Moments later, the alleged attacker returned to the carriage and looked at her again, allegedly saying, “The devil’s not going to win,” before moving on.

“I was waiting cause I could still hear him in the carriage. I heard the doors open and ran off the train,” she said.

“I saw him take off running and then minutes later, police rushed past me and I saw him get tasered by the taxi rank.”

Mr Gray also shared his experience, revealing to the publication how he helped a young man who had been seriously wounded.

“A young lad there was only 19 or 20 and had been cut and stabbed really badly. He had a gash on his arm and had several puncture wounds under his arm,” he said.

“He somehow got past me and was panicking, walking through saying, ‘please, somebody help me, I’ve been stabbed’.

“I looked and saw how bad it was. There was a lot of blood coming out, and it looked like an artery bleed.”

Mr Gray took off his belt to create a makeshift tourniquet for the boy.

“The attacker was just stabbing anybody he could find. I don’t know how it started or why.”

“If we were sat at the front of that carriage, that could have been me covered in stab wounds. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night.”

Fellow passenger, Olly Foster, told the BBC he heard people shouting “run, run, there’s a guy literally stabbing everyone”.

British Transport Police confirmed that 11 people were hospitalised, with two remaining in life-threatening condition.

Superintendent John Loveless said on Sunday that the attack is not being treated as terrorism.

“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” he said.

“We continue work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident.

“It would not be appropriate to speculate on the cause.”

Initially, police also detained a 35-year-old British man of Caribbean descent, but he was later released after investigators concluded the 32-year-old suspect acted alone.