“He confronted the attacker and prevented him from advancing along the convoy.” Employee’s “heroic” actions saved many lives in knife attack in England

The driver’s decision to divert the train to London was also praised

Just 11 minutes passed between the time British police received an emergency call about a stabbing on a London-bound train and the time the suspect was detained.

Eleven victims were hospitalized in the attack, including a railway employee who is in critical but stable condition, according to authorities.

Authorities stated that the number of victims would have been much higher if it were not for the action of the driver, who diverted the train to a nearby station, and a “heroic” railway employee who tried to stop the attacker on the train.

The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) high-speed train, which was carrying passengers from the north of England to the British capital on Saturday night, had just left Peterborough station in Cambridgeshire when the attack occurred. The first emergency call to Cambridgeshire Police was made at approximately 7:39 pm local time. At 7:50 p.m., officers arrested the 32-year-old British suspect on the Huntingdon station platform, police told CNN.

The seriously injured railway worker has not yet been publicly identified.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood paid tribute to the worker on Monday, saying he “ran towards danger, confronting the attacker for a long period of time and preventing him from advancing through the convoy”.

The British Transport Police (BTP) stated that “detectives analyzed CCTV footage from the train and it was clear that their actions were truly heroic and undoubtedly saved the lives of many people”.

“The courage he showed was absolutely remarkable… he put himself at risk,” British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC on Monday. “There are people who are alive today who wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for your actions.”

Another five victims have already been discharged from hospital, BTP said in an update on Sunday.

Alexander also paid tribute to the emergency services and in particular the train driver, “who had the presence of mind to call Network Rail and put the train on the slow line to Huntingdon station and a place of safety”.

The high-speed train was scheduled to pass through the station on a fast line, but the driver and signallers quickly arranged for it to be diverted to a slow line so that it could stop alongside the platform.

Available information shows that a signaller made the first change to the convoy’s planned route at 7:40 pm local time, just one minute after police received the first call about the attack. Another local train was already on the platform at Huntingdon and, once this had departed, the signalman was able to guide the LNER train safely to the platform, where it stopped at 7.44pm.

Huntington station is just around the corner from Cambridgeshire Police headquarters, and both responding officers and armed officers were quickly on the scene.

Armed police officers were seen running across the station platform, evacuating passengers as they sought to neutralize any ongoing threats, UK news agency PA Media reported.

Train driver Andrew Johnson told ITV News: “”I was just doing my job. It was my colleague in hospital who was brave.” Johnson, from Peterborough, served in the Royal Navy for 17 years, according to British media.

Johnson was praised for remaining calm as the attack unfolded and for choosing not to make an emergency stop between stations, where it would have been more difficult for authorities to respond. Instead, quick decisions by Johnson and the signaller allowed the convoy to be stopped at Huntingdon; the next opportunity would have been a station seven minutes further down the line.

Train drivers in the UK have extensive route training and are required to know the location of all signals and the layout of rails on their route, even in the dark. Signalers have similar detailed knowledge.

Nigel Roebuck, organizer of the train drivers’ union ASLEF and director of LNER, told the British press that “the driver did everything he was trained to do, at the right time and in the right way.”

“He demonstrated true courage, true dedication and true determination under the most difficult circumstances,” Roebuck added. “Our thoughts tonight are with your colleague, who is still in intensive care.”

Suspect was charged with multiple attempted murders

Police are working to determine the motive for the attack, but said there is no evidence to suggest it was related to terrorism. Mahmood said the suspect was not known to the security services, counter-terrorism police or the Home Office’s Prevent programme, a central pillar of Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy.

The man arrested, Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough, was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of grievous bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed weapon. He was also charged with another attempted murder in connection with an incident that occurred on Saturday at a London station. Williams was remanded in custody after appearing in court on Monday.

In court, he was not asked to plead guilty or innocent and he said “of no fixed abode” when asked about his address, according to PA Media UK. His next court appearance is scheduled for December 1.

A second man was initially detained at the scene but was later released without charge.

Meanwhile, three further incidents believed to be linked to the attacker occurred in Peterborough on Friday night and Saturday morning, according to Cambridgeshire Police. One included a stabbing in Peterborough city center in which a 14-year-old was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Witnesses describe escaping the attack

Passenger Wren Chambers told the BBC that she initially “heard screams and screams” coming from one or two carriages ahead, before a man ran through the train with a “very obvious injury”, bleeding profusely from his arm.

At first she thought it was a Halloween prank, but it became clear it was a real attack when the man shouted that someone had a knife and more people came running through the convoy.

People fled through the carriages in search of safety, with some trying to barricade themselves in the train’s bathrooms, other witnesses said. Other passengers managed to hide in the train’s dining car.

Another witness, Thomas McLachlan, told the BBC: “There were definitely a lot of heroes that day, a lot of kind people who just wanted to help those around them – people handing out blankets, hand warmers.”

McLachlan said he saw an injured man who had been cut in the face. He and another witness told local media that they heard the man was “trying to protect a young girl from being attacked” when he was stabbed.

One of the victims still in hospital is Scunthorpe United player Jonathan Gjoshe, the football club said in a statement, which said he suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Little other information has been released so far about the other victims, including their ages.

LNER director general David Horne said in a statement that he would like to recognize the “driver, crew and our operational response colleagues for their courage and quick actions”.