Police rule out terrorism in stabbing attack on UK train after 2 men are arrested : NPR

A train is parked at the station after a mass assault on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday November 2, 2025.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

LONDON — British police on Sunday dismissed rumors that a mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train the night before was linked to terrorism and said two injured people remained in critical condition.

Police also said two men, born in the United Kingdom, were still detained at different police stations. They were arrested eight minutes after the first emergency calls at 7:42 p.m. from the train, where passengers had reported scenes of panic and chaos, with many running around the carriages and some seeking shelter in toilets.

“This is a shocking incident and my thoughts are with those who were injured and their families,” British Transport Police Commissioner John Loveless said outside Huntingdon station in eastern England, where the train stopped shortly after the attack.

“There is nothing to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” he added.

The two people arrested remain in custody, he said, adding that one is a 32-year-old black British man and the other a 35-year-old man of Caribbean descent. The relationship between the two suspects has not been revealed, nor has the type of knife or knives used.

Loveless also provided an update on the injured, reducing the number of people in life-threatening condition from nine to two. He said four of them were discharged from the hospital and another person arrived at the hospital, bringing the total number of patients treated to 11.

After its emergency stop at Huntingdon, a market town about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of London, bloodied and confused passengers emerged from the train. Dozens of police officers were waiting, some armed, and the two suspects were quickly arrested, Loveless said.

In the immediate response to the attack, police said ‘Plato’, the national code word used by police and emergency services to respond to what could be a ‘marauding terrorist attack’, had been called out. This statement was later rescinded, but no motive for the attack was revealed.

“At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident,” Loveless said.

The attack took place when the 6.25pm ​​train from Doncaster, in the north of England, to King’s Cross station in London was about halfway through its two-hour journey, having just left a stop in Peterborough.

Passenger Olly Foster told the BBC he heard people shouting “Run, run, there’s a guy literally stabbing everyone”, and initially thought it might have been a Halloween prank – Saturday was the day after Halloween. But as passengers passed him to walk away, he noticed his hand was covered in blood from a chair he had been leaning on.

Following reports that some people on the train had put themselves in danger to protect others, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood praised “the exceptional courage of the train’s staff and passengers”.

King Charles III said he and his wife Queen Camilla had sent their condolences and thoughts to those affected and were “truly dismayed and shocked to learn of the terrible knife attack”.

London North Eastern Railway, or LNER, which operates East Coast Mainline services in the United Kingdom, confirmed the incident occurred on one of its trains and said there would be major disruption to the route until Monday.

Loveless, of the British Transport Police, said passengers would see “a very visible police presence at stations and on trains” on Sunday.