Political leaders praised the high-speed train driver, who ensured it was transferred to a slower line and arrested within minutes of the attacks, and a crew member who protected passengers and suffered serious injuries.
The train crew member remains in the hospital with serious injuries, but authorities said he was in stable condition.
Australian Matt Kingston, who was on the train returning to London from Yorkshire, told 2GB radio how he and other passengers had sought refuge in the train’s bar.
“The train wasn’t very busy…a handful of people started running around the car,” Kingston said. “I took out my headphones and heard screams… ‘he has a knife, run, run.’
Kingston said he followed others fleeing through the carriages before taking cover at the rail of the train.
“It was pretty scary. There was an extra person in the bar before we even closed the door, and that person came out to confront the attacker.”
“We saw the man walk past us, super calm. It was really eerie at the time. He was calm, he didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, but I mean, he was wielding a huge kitchen knife.”
Charging
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed rail staff as heroes.
“There is no doubt that your collective action, your brave action, saved countless lives, and I know the whole country is grateful for that,” he told the House of Commons.
While authorities initially said nine victims faced life-threatening injuries at the hospital out of the 11 being treated, at least five have since been released. None of them are in a life-threatening condition.
Knife crime has become a major concern in Britain for several years, with official statistics showing there were 49,600 attacks with sharp instruments in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. This was similar to levels in previous years, according to a study by the House of Commons Library.
Aware of community fears about knife crime, the UK government announced three days ago that almost 60,000 knives had been taken off the streets in England and Wales through “knife drop-off schemes” and police operations.
He said knife homicides had fallen by almost 20 per cent and the latest admissions data to NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a 10 per cent drop in admissions for knife-related injuries.
Facial recognition solution
Home Minister Shabana Mahmood suggested the government would consider allowing greater use of facial recognition to prevent crime.
“This government will consult on a legal framework so that all police forces in the country can use live facial recognition technology, confident that they will not have to defend those decisions in court in the future,” he said.
“I think we can do a lot more to use new and emerging technologies to help us address this type of crime.”
While the train attack has sparked debate over whether security on railways should be improved to levels closer to security on airlines, the government has not discussed such measures.
Williams is alleged to have boarded the London-bound commuter train at Peterborough and began attacking people shortly after its departure. Police said the first call to emergency services came at 7.42pm on Saturday (6.42am AEDT on Sunday).
The alleged attack in east London occurred hours earlier, at 1am on Saturday. Before that, a man with a knife was seen in a barbershop in Peterborough at 7.25pm on Friday, minutes after the stabbing of the 14-year-old boy in the city.
The same man was seen in the store at 9:25 a.m. Saturday, police say.
Get a note directly from our foreigner correspondents about what’s making headlines around the world. Subscribe to our weekly What in the World newsletter.
