“We thought it was a Halloween prank”, a violent stabbing attack on a train in England

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The police rush to the platform. This train has just entered the station. A horror scene has just taken place on board. The train left Saturday evening November 1st from Doncaster towards London. Shortly after 7:30 p.m., emergency services were alerted to a knife attack in the middle of a train. In this enclosed space, with no exit, the passengers describe a long moment of panic and terror.

“I heard a man run through our car yelling, “Run, run, some guy is stabbing everyone.” » At first we thought it was a Halloween prank, but we saw in their faces that they were serious. As I walked forward, I placed my hand on a seat to steady myself. When I looked at my hand it was covered in blood and on the seats there was blood everywhere“, testifies Olly Foster, passenger on the train.

While the train is still moving, some passengers hide in the toilets. Others try to barricade the doors between the cars. “A person was crossing the train to get away from the attack, to flee the suspects. She was covered in blood. When the train stopped, this person almost collapsed on the ground“, says a witness at the scene. The police intervened at this station. They arrested two suspects using an electric pulse gun.

“They are a 32-year-old black man of British nationality and a 35-year-old British man of Caribbean origin. They were both arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. At this stage, nothing suggests an incident of a terrorist nature“, said John Lovelace, Commissioner of the British Transport Police.

Ten victims were taken to hospital. For two of them, the vital prognosis is still engaged. The British Prime Minister described the attack as “extremely worrying“. In England, where firearms legislation is very strict, knife violence has increased sharply over the past fifteen years.