LONDON (AP) — U.Okay. police on Monday charged a 32-year-old man with tried homicide over a mass stabbing assault on a prepare that wounded 11 individuals, and stated he additionally tried to kill somebody at a London transit station earlier the identical day.
British Transport Police stated Anthony Williams is charged with 10 counts of tried homicide, considered one of precise bodily hurt, and considered one of possession of a bladed article over the assault on Saturday.
Police stated he’s additionally charged with tried homicide over an earlier incident at Pontoon Dock gentle rail station in London simply earlier than 1 a.m. on Saturday, through which a sufferer “suffered facial accidents after being attacked with a knife” by an assailant who fled the scene.
Police stated investigators are additionally “ different potential linked offenses.”
Police say they aren’t treating the prepare stabbings as an act of terror and usually are not on the lookout for different suspects. A second man initially arrested as a suspect was launched with out cost on Sunday after it was decided the 35-year-old was not concerned.
Williams, a British citizen from town of Peterborough in jap England, made a short look at Peterborough Magistrates’ Courtroom on Monday.
Williams, who was flanked by 4 safety officers as he stood within the dock carrying a grey jail tracksuit and handcuffs, was ordered detained till his subsequent listening to on Dec. 1. He was not requested to enter pleas.
The minutes-long stabbing spree unfold concern and panic by means of a prepare sure from Doncaster in northern England to London on Saturday night. The prepare was about midway by means of its journey and had simply departed from a cease at Peterborough when police started receiving calls about individuals being stabbed on board.
Passengers described scenes of panic as bloodied vacationers raced down the prepare to get away from the knifeman. Eleven individuals had been handled within the hospital. Essentially the most significantly wounded sufferer is a member of railway employees who tried to cease the attacker. Police known as his actions “ nothing in need of heroic.”
He’s hospitalized in a vital however secure situation. 4 different victims remained within the hospital on Monday.
Williams was arrested when the prepare made an emergency cease within the city of Huntingdon in jap England. Police say he was detained inside eight minutes of officers receiving the primary emergency calls.
Authorities stated the assault was an remoted incident however stepped up safety on the railway, with armed cops on patrol Monday at main prepare stations.
The federal government rejected requires elevated safety measures, equivalent to airport-style passenger and baggage screening to be launched at Britain’s 3,500 railway stations, saying that wouldn’t be “proportionate or sensible.”
Within the U.Okay, which has strict gun-control legal guidelines, nearly half of all homicides contain a knife or sharp instrument. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left authorities has pledged to scale back knife crime and has tightened guidelines for buying knives and banned some sorts of blades.
It claims to have had some success, with the variety of knife killings down by greater than 20% within the yr to March 2025 from the earlier 12 months, in keeping with the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics.
