Two British men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with a stabbing rampage on a London-bound train that sent 11 people to the hospital with serious injuries, the police said Sunday morning.
Officials said they did not believe the attack was terrorism related, but offered no potential motive for the spree on Saturday evening, which forced a commuter train from northern England to make an emergency stop.
Of the 11 wounded, four have been discharged from the hospital but two remain in “life-threatening condition,” officials said on Sunday.
The police said the suspects, a 32-year-old and a 35-year-old, are British nationals who were born in the United Kingdom.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” John Loveless, the superintendent of the British Transport Police, said in a statement. “We continue work to establish the full circumstances and motivation for this incident. At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
The attack was the latest in a string of recent stabbings in Britain that has put the country on edge. 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.
Saturday’s train attack drew swift condemnations from Britain’s leaders.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement on social media that the attack was “deeply concerning.” He added, “My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response.”
John Healy, the country’s defense secretary, told the BBC that he and his wife had been on the same train line a few hours earlier. He urged Britains to remain vigilant but said they should feel safe to go about their lives.
“For now, the early reports suggest this was an isolated incident,” he said on the BBC’s “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg” program. “So from the public’s point of view, there’s no reason not to continue traveling.”
Witnesses on the train described frantic moments of horror unfolding as the train sped toward London’s King’s Cross station.
Olly Foster, a passenger, described the scene to the BBC and in a post on X.
“We ran from the back of the train to the end as everyone was screaming to run, explaining there was somebody stabbing everyone and everything,” Mr. Foster wrote. “There was blood on the top of countless chairs, coming from 2 of the guys who had been severely stabbed ahead of me.”
He and other witnesses described the passengers flooding onto the platform as soon as the train made its emergency stop, where travelers and paramedics tried to tend to the wounded.
Transport police said the first reports of the attack came at 7:42 p.m. on the 6:25 p.m. service to London from Doncaster, in northern England. Train engineers made an emergency stop at Huntingdon, where armed officers from Cambridgeshire Police boarded the train.
Mr. Loveless said that the two men were arrested “within eight minutes” of the first call to Britain’s emergency number.
Officials warned that the rail network would be disrupted on Sunday because of the investigation. Mr. Loveless said that the police were deploying extra resources to trains and train stations.
“Passengers will see a high visibility presence of police officers at stations and on trains throughout today who are there to reassure the public and respond to any concerns,” he said.
Michael D. Shear is a senior Times correspondent covering British politics and culture, and diplomacy around the world.
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