On November 1st on a high-speed London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train, there was a mass stabbing attack injuring ten people in the process, and 9 of those people had life-threatening injuries. The proprietor, 32-year-old Anthony Williams, was arrested and charged with 10 counts of attempted murder later that evening.

The attack occurred right as the train left Peterborough station in Cambridgeshire. According to CNN, BBC interviewed one of the passengers, Wren Chambers, who initially “heard some screaming and shouting” coming from a carriage or two down, before a man ran down the train with a “very clear wound,” bleeding heavily from his arm (Tanno, Nicholls, Kent, Nov 2).

Seeking safety, people ran through the carriages; some even attempted to barricade themselves in the train’s bathrooms, and a few, as they were running, saw seats soaked in blood. The police received their first emergency call at around 7:39 p.m. and immediately sent over armed officers. 11 minutes after the call to police, they disarmed and arrested 2 potential suspects, but one of those suspects was later released once the train stopped at Huntingdon station, where it remained Sunday morning surrounded by medical supplies and debris on the platform. The suspect, 32-year-old Anthony Williams, was charged with 11 counts of attempted murder and is suspected to potentially be connected to another stabbing incident that occurred Saturday.

There were a total of 11 victims. 10 of whom were transported to the hospital by an ambulance, while the 11th victim presented themselves later that evening. As of Tuesday 7, of the 11 victims had been released from the hospital. One of the 4 victims who stayed in the hospital, who was a staff member on the train, 48-year-old Samir Zitouni, is in critical but stable condition after attempting to stop the attacker. One of the other victims who was hospitalized was Scunthorpe United player Jonathan Gjoshe, though according to the soccer club, he sustained non-lethal injuries. Besides the 2 mentioned, there’s not much information about the other victims, including their ages.

The UK doesn’t have many mass casualty events, and its homicide rates are low compared to other countries. Gun crimes are especially low, with 5,103 offenses this year, but the same can’t be said for knife crimes. The number of knife crimes in England and Wales has been increasing since 2011. 51,527 knife crime offenses were recorded by forces in the previous 12 months up until June 2025; 15,689 of those crimes were committed in London. According to The New York Times, “Last month, a man attacked worshipers at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, killing one person and wounding several others. And a 22-year-old man was charged with murder and attempted murder last week after a triple stabbing in a west London suburb that killed a man walking his dog” (Shear Nov 2).