Lucy Manning
Special correspondent

Stephen Crean’s left hand is heavily bandaged and he still has blood in his hair.

He is one of the train passengers Anthony Williams is accused of attempting to murder in Cambridgeshire.

The Nottingham Forest football fan is being hailed a hero after he confronted the train attacker, going face to face with him in the carriage.

He tells the BBC how he “tussled” with the man who was shouting at him as he slashed him on the head and hand.

Crean says he first saw people running down the train shouting that there was a man with a knife. As people ran to the buffet car he said he wanted to make sure passengers were safe.

"I saw him coming towards me - a guy with a rucksack and he's obviously got something in there.

"Everyone’s gone towards the buffet carriage, and that is on the verge of being full up. There's no one else getting in there. I wasn’t even going to bother pushing to get in. There's young women and they need to get them in.

"I confronted this guy, because I’ve got to make sure that the door's locked and I've looked around to save a bit of time. But then he started, he pulled this thing out. It was an over-large blade thing.

"He’s gone for me and there was a tussle in the arms with him and that's where my hand, the fingers are really bad, four cuts through them, sliced. And then he raised it and must have caught me when I was ducking and diving and must have caught me on the head.”

Crean says it’s nice to hear that people are calling him a hero but he thinks there were also other heroes yesterday.

“It’s lovely to hear. But I'd say there are other heroes like the police and the guys that got me off the train, and the ambulances and the hospital staff, they're probably the real heroes. And the train guy that's really badly injured. So, you know, it's a big shout to call someone a hero, but it's nice.”

He says he was determined to confront the attacker to give another passenger time to close the buffet door.

“That door still wasn't shut behind me, because I could still see him struggling to close it. So until I knew it was closed I wasn’t moving away from it.”

Image source, Stephen Crean/BBC

Daniel Sandford
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

In the courtroom a little earlier we heard that Williams is charged with assaulting a police officer following the attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

The assault allegedly resulted in a broken nose.

Downing Street says it is sure that police will look into its handling of the events leading up to the train attack in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

When asked if there were questions for the police to answer, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman says: “Clearly, whenever there is a serious incident of this kind it would be natural to assume that police forces would look at the handling of their cases, and I’m sure that would be the same here.”

The spokesman adds that "ordinary people showed extraordinary bravery on Saturday to save the lives of others".

"The prime minister pays tribute to all those who stood firm in the face of this horrific attack. They are heroes in the truest sense of the word," they say.

Daniel Sandford
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

After a brief appearance in Peterborough Magistrates' Court, Antony Williams has been remanded in custody.

Here's a reminder of what he has been charged with:

• Ten counts of attempted murder following a stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday
• Actual bodily harm in connection to an alleged assault on a police officer in a custody suite, following the train attack
• One count of possession of bladed article in connection to the incident in Cambridgeshire
• Another count of attempted murder in a separate incident at Pontoon Dock Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, London, in the early hours of Saturday

• Another count of possession of a bladed article in connection to the incident at Pontoon Dock DLR station

Daniel Sandford
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

After just seven minutes in the courtroom, the hearing is over.

Anthony Williams has been remanded in custody. He gave his address as "no fixed abode".

His next appearance in court will be at Cambridge Crown Court on 1 December.

Daniel Sandford
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

Anthony Williams, 32, is appearing at Peterborough Magistrates' Court.

He has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article following a stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

Williams has come into the dock in handcuffs, a grey sweatshirt and trousers.

Is knife crime rising or falling in the UK?published at 11:56 GMT

11:56 GMT

By Lucy Gilder

Earlier this morning, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme speaking about Saturday’s knife attack on a train bound for London.

He says "there is a very worrying trend of knife crime across the United Kingdom - last year approximately 250 people [were] killed using a knife, about 50,000 knife offences were recorded as well".

There is no single knife crime statistics publication in the UK but as far as England and Wales goes, police recorded 51,527 offences across both nations in the year to June 2025, according to the latest figures, external published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, these figures show knife crime is falling by 5% compared with the same period last year and 7% compared with five years ago. Homicides involving a knife also fell by nearly a fifth in the latest year to 196 offences, compared with 239 the year before.

Rozina Sini
BBC News

Warning: This post contains distressing detail

Zeb Golubows, 29, was on the train on carriage L, which was just two carriages away from the site of the knife attack in Cambridgeshire on Saturday night.

He tells the BBC he saw lots of people running down into his carriage shouting "he's got a knife". He stood up and began running with them.

"People were on the phone to the police and saying we need to stop the train," he continues.

"And then we saw we were headed into Huntington train station and people just sprinted off the train and started running."

After getting off the train, Golubows says he called his girlfriend and family. He says he also saw two of the injured people, and "blood everywhere".

One of those injured people called an ambulance, and then he saw "loads of police cars and ambulances already arriving".

"It was awful."

We can bring you more reaction now to the stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday evening.

“It’s shocking. It’s such a bolt out of the blue to have all this attention on the town," says David Landon Cole, who is the former mayor of Huntingdon. "There’s a real concern for everybody involved in the incident."

“There’s also a certain pride in how quickly the emergency services reacted," he tells Breakfast on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

This is particularly true of the police response, he adds. "In a matter of minutes of the call, they’d made an arrest. I think their actions may have saved lives.”

The leader of Peterborough City Council, Shabina Qayyum, has shared her "complete admiration and appreciation" for those who have "worked tirelessly" to reduce the impact of this attack. She also hails the "swift and decisive action" of the train driver.

Posting on social media, Qayyum calls for "residents and communities to show the same strength that we have seen time and time again" and support those who are the most affected.

There have been several new developments following the stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday night. Here are some of the details

What we know

Anthony Williams, 32 and from Peterborough, is due to appear in court, charged with 10 counts of attempted murder following the knife attack.

He has been charged with an additional count of attempted murder in relation to a separate incident on London's DLR network in early hours of Saturday.

A train worker – hailed as a hero for protecting passengers on the train on Saturday night – is in "critical but stable" condition, the transport secretary told the BBC.

Eleven people were injured in that attack, five of whom are still in hospital.

There is increased police presence around major stations to reassure the public.

What we don't know

The names of the injured people, including the train worker.

The motivation for the attack. Police have said they are not considering the incident to be terror-related.

We have been hearing from several eyewitnesses who were onboard the train in Cambridgeshire when the stabbing attack happened on Saturday evening.

The moment Thomas McLachlan realised "something bad was happening" was when people started congregating in the compartment between the carriage he was in and the one in front, he told BBC Breakfast.

Thomas then says he heard the words: "He's been stabbed".

As he exited the train at Huntingdon station, Thomas says he saw passengers "absolutely drenched in blood" and adds "it was chaos".

A little while earlier, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC that there would be an increased police presence around trains in the aftermath of the knife attack in Huntingdon on Saturday evening.

Armed officers and police dogs have been seen at Kings Cross Station and St Pancras International Station in central London this morning.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

The police say that Anthony Williams, 32, is also being charged with an additional count of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in relation to an incident on London's DLR network in the early hours of Saturday.

It is understood that a victim suffered facial injuries after being attacked with a knife at Pontoon Dock station on London's DLR network at 00:46.

Williams was later identified as a suspect.

Here are a few more lines from the police, after 32-year-old Anthony Williams was charged with attempted murder and bodily harm.

He will appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court later this morning following the "major incident on a train Cambridgeshire on Saturday evening".

A 32-year-old from Peterborough has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of bladed article following a stabbing attack on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday, British Transport Police says.

He is named as Anthony Williams.

More on this shortly.

Warning: This post contains distressing details

Eyewitness Matt Kingston was travelling on the LNER train where the attack took place. He was wearing his headphones and was first alerted to the incident when people started running through the train, he tells BBC Breakfast.

As the noise got louder, he says he realised it was "time to go", leaving carriage H and running towards the buffet carriage.

Train staff started closing the shutters to the buffet carriage in an attempt to shelter those inside from the attack. There were around "10 of us jammed in there", Kingston says.

He describes one man leaving the cart in an attempt to confront the attacker.

Through the window of the carriage, Kingston says he could see the attacker walk past with "quite a large kitchen knife". Then nothing for about 30 seconds, before the attacker came back the other way.

The attacker wasn't saying anything or running rapidly through the train, Kingston says. He describes the environment as "really strange" and "kind of calm in a sense".

Kingston helped a young man who had been stabbed, putting pressure on a wound using "blue roll" from the buffet carriage. "Everyone around" was trying to help, he says.

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Robbie Kalus
Reporting from Huntingdon

The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train on which the stabbing attack took place on Saturday evening has just left Huntingdon station, heading north.

The electronic displays read "Edinburgh Waverley" but the destination hasn’t been confirmed by police or LNER.

Former British Transport Police chief constable Andy Trotter says he hopes the incident will prompt a broader review of security on trains.

He tells BBC Breakfast he thinks the incident was handled "very well" by the driver, rail authorities, police and other emergency services.

It is reassuring to know there are more patrols on trains following the incident, but he says that will only work in the "very short-term".

He says many people can feel vulnerable on trains if there is someone causing disorder.

"I think what it illustrates is people's real concerns about being trapped with an offender, with someone causing disorder, and I hope this results in a broader review of security, the need for more BTP, the need for more security from the rail companies themselves," he says.

We can bring you a bit more now from the transport secretary on BBC Breakfast. Police have said the incident is not terror-related, but she's asked if mental health is something detectives are looking into.

Heidi Alexander says she has "no medical information" she can share about the suspect while a live police investigation is ongoing. There are "many questions" that need to be answered, she says.

Alexander says there will be an increased police presence around trains but adds that the public should feel reassured that, despite this attack, the rail network remains a "low crime" environment.

Asked about increased security on trains going forward, Alexander says the government wants to improve security in a "proportionate" way, including by improving CCTV at stations – but says that airport-style scanning technology is not something ministers are looking at.