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London: The key suspect in a terrifying knife attack asked police to kill him when he was arrested after a mass stabbing on a high-speed train bound for London, according to a witness who saw officers racing to stop the bloodshed.
One passenger is fighting life-threatening injuries in hospital, and 10 others were wounded in the ordeal, which spread fear through the train as bloodied victims ran through the carriages to escape the assailant.
A forensic investigator films the area where passengers abandoned their belongings at Huntingdon station after the mass stabbing on a London-bound train.Credit: AP
Police arrested two men when the train was brought to an emergency halt at a station near Cambridge, but they released one of them later and concluded the horror attack was the work of a single assailant.
Investigators are still searching for a motive after saying there was no reason to conclude the attack was terrorism.
Witnesses applauded the quick-thinking train driver, named as Iraq war veteran Andrew Johnson, for ensuring the train was switched to a slower line so it could stop at Huntingdon within minutes of the attack, allowing police to swarm the train.
One witness, Viorel Turturica, told the BBC he saw the suspect yelling at police when they surrounded him at Huntingdon station, amid confusion as passengers fled the train.
“He was asking to be killed when he was surrounded by the police – ‘kill me, kill me, kill me’,” said Turturica, a taxi driver who was in his vehicle at the station.
British Transport Police superintendent John Loveless said the suspect was a 32-year-old black British national.
‘Nothing to suggest’ terrorism
Police earlier detained a second suspect, a 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent, but they released him on Sunday afternoon, hours after the attack on the Saturday night rail service.
“It was reported in good faith to officers responding to the incident that he was involved in the attack, and following enquiries we can confirm that he was not involved,” police said shortly before 6pm on Sunday (5am on Monday, AEDT).
The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon.Credit: AP
“Counter terrorism policing were initially supporting our investigation,” Loveless said.
“However, at this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident. This is a British Transport Police investigation, and we continue to work to establish, at pace, the full circumstances and the motivations that have led to this incident.
“At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the cause of this incident.”
Nine victims were said to be facing life-threatening injuries in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Saturday night, but authorities revised this on Sunday morning and said two were in hospital in this condition. Later, they said one remained in a life-threatening condition.
Ten victims were rushed to hospital and another self-presented at hospital. Five were discharged during the day after the attack.
The greatest danger is to a conductor on the London North Eastern Railway who sought to stop the assailant, with authorities hailing him as a hero and witnesses saying he tried to shield passengers from attack.
“This casualty is a member of LNER rail staff who was on the train at the time and tried to stop the attacker,” said police.
“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.”
Witnesses describe panic
Earlier, Loveless from the British Transport Police described the response in a briefing to the media shortly after 10.30am on Sunday (9.30pm on Sunday, AEDT), amid widespread fears the attack was terrorism.
He said the first call to police was made at 7.42pm on Saturday on the emergency 999 phone line, equivalent to Australia’s Triple Zero. The train was heading south from Doncaster to King’s Cross station in London.
Emergency personnel inspect a train in Huntingdon station.Credit: AP
With the driver and railway authorities diverting the high-speed train to Huntingdon, armed police headed to the station and searched for the suspect.
“Within eight minutes of the 999 call being made, two men were brought into police custody,” Loveless said. One was later released.
One witness, Oliver Foster, also described passengers rushing through the train to escape the attackers.
“There was a girl, bless her, who was really, really in a bit of a state,” Foster told the BBC. “Because the guy had actually tried to stab her, and one of the older guys, who was an absolute hero, blocked it with his head. He had this gash on his neck, and we’ve given him, like, a jacket to keep the pressure on.”
Another witness, Amira Ostalski, said she was in the carriage where the attacker began stabbing passengers around him.
“Everyone started shouting: ‘he’s got a knife, there’s blood’,” she told the BBC.
Ostalski said one of the train conductors was stabbed when he tried to protect some of the passengers.
Some passengers managed to reach a buffet car and were able to block the door against the attacker, preventing him from reaching others.
One couple on board the train, Dayna Arnold and Andy Gray, witnessed some of the attacks in their carriage.
Gray told the London Telegraph he saw a young man with a gash on his arm and several knife wounds, so he helped by using a belt as a makeshift tourniquet.
Arnold said the attacker came after her as she tried to escape.
“I got knocked into some seats. I saw the knifeman running; he came at me with the knife. I said ‘please, please don’t’,” she told The Telegraph.
“Then something changed in his eyes and he said: ‘the devil’s not going to win.’”
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