Police and British Transport Police officers walk on the platform alongside an LNER Azuma train at Huntingdon Station in Huntingdon, eastern England, on 1 November, 2025, following a stabbing on a train. Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP
UK police said they had arrested two suspects Saturday as "a number of people" were taken to hospital after a stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.
"We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed," British Transport Police said on X, adding that "two people have been arrested".
Cambridgeshire police said: "A number of people have been taken to hospital."
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the "appalling" incident was "deeply concerning".
"My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response," Starmer said in a statement on X.
"Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police," he added.
Armed police were at the scene after being alerted around 7.40pm local time and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, a market town in east England, police added.
Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said all its railway lines had been closed while emergency services dealt with the incident at Huntingdon station.
LNER, which runs trains along the east of England and Scotland, urged passengers not to travel, warning of "major disruption".
It serves major stops including in London, Peterborough, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh.
The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Paul Bristow said in a post on X: "Hearing reports of horrendous scenes on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire", adding that his "thoughts are with everyone affected".
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Photo: AFP / Pool /Alberto Pezzali
Knife crime
Knife crime in England and Wales has been steadily rising since 2011, according to official government data.
While Britain has some of the strictest gun controls in the world, rampant knife crime has been branded a "national crisis" by Starmer.
His Labour government has tried to rein in their use.
Nearly 60,000 blades have been either "seized or surrendered" in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Carrying a knife in public can already get you up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 percent in the last year.
Two people were killed - one as a result of misdirected police gunfire - and others wounded in a stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester at the start of October in an attack which shook the local Jewish community and the country.
- AFP
