British man charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after train stabbings

UK. prosecutors on Monday charged a 32-year-old man with ten counts of attempted murder following a mass stabbing on a London-bound train that left multiple passengers injured on Saturday, including a train worker critically but now stable.

Anthony Williams has also been charged with one count of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article over an earlier incident in east London.

He is due to appear at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

UK police say mass stabbing on train is not terrorist incident

U.K police said that a knife attack on a train, which put 11 people in hospital, was not a terrorist incident, adding that two men – both British nationals – had been arrested.

Counterterrorism police had helped with the initial investigation after the mass stabbing of passengers on a train in eastern England on Saturday.

“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” Superintendent John Loveless from British Transport Police told the media on Sunday.

The two men arrested on suspicion of attempted murder were a 32-year-old male, a Black British national, and a 35-year-old British national of Caribbean descent, Loveless said. Both were born in the UK, he added.

“We continue work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident,” he said.

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

The arrests were made by armed police after the train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon, around 80 miles (130 km) north of London.
Of the 11 people hospitalised, four have since been discharged, and two patients remain in a life-threatening condition, police said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it an “appalling incident” which was “deeply concerning”, while King Charles said he was “truly appalled and shocked”.

Knife crime in England and Wales has risen 87% over the past decade, with 54,587 offences last year alone, a 2% rise from 2023 and among the highest rates in Europe, according to figures from Britain’s interior ministry show.