Beckenham: Man seriously injured after stabbing on London train

Emergency services attended the incident when the train was at Beckenham Junction station

A man is in a life-threatening condition after being stabbed on a moving train in front of horrified passengers in south-east London.

Police say they are aware of social media footage showing a man being attacked near the carriage doors of a train travelling between Shortlands and Beckenham, towards London Victoria.

There have been no arrests.

Two men were seen fighting while entering a train at Shortlands station, just before 16:00 GMT, police added.

Warning: this story contains images that some might find distressing

Paramedics treated the injured man at Beckenham Junction Station.

In the video other passengers in the carriage can be heard gasping and shouting at the attacker, a man wearing a black hooded jacket, black trousers and a facemask, to stop.

An image from a video on social media shows the attacker holding a blade

School lockdown

A local school, which is not being named by the BBC, said in an email to parents that it had initiated its "lockdown procedure", bringing all children at its after-school club inside as a precaution.

"Parents collecting children from after-school club will be given the opportunity to make safe travel plans home and may remain on site until they have made these arrangements," it said.

In a statement, British Transport Police (BTP) said: "A man sustained serious injures consistent with being stabbed.

An image from a video on social media shows the attacker bending down as passengers gather at the other end of the carriage

"Officers attended, alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police Service and the London Ambulance Service, and the victim was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries."

London Ambulance Service added it had sent ambulance crews, an incident response officer and London's Air Ambulance to the scene.

"We treated a man at the scene before taking him to a London major trauma centre," a spokesperson continued.

A Southeastern trains spokesperson said: "All of our trains are fitted with CCTV and we will be providing this footage to the British Transport Police to assist with their inquiries.

"We also have an integrated safeguarding team, comprised of Southeastern, BTP and Network Rail colleagues, and we are already working together to find those responsible."

National Rail posted an update on X (formerly Twitter) saying lines have reopened following the incident and trains are running as normal.

BTP said its inquiries continued and detectives were appealing for witnesses to come forward.

It urged anyone with information on the incident to contact police or call Crimestoppers anonymously.

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