Man, 32, treated as only suspect in train stabbing as staff member in life-threatening condition, police say - latest

www.bbc.com

Rajini Vaidyanathan
Reporting from Huntingdon train station

Amira OstalskiJo Black/BBC

Warning: This post contains distressing details

Train passenger Amira Ostalski was with her friend when she saw a person get stabbed by someone who was carrying what appeared to be a large kitchen knife.

"It was like he had a mission to stab anyone he saw right in front of him," she told me.

"There was blood everywhere, people were screaming, 'he’s got a knife'".

"People were getting trampled on, it was a very busy train, so people were just trying to run away from the attacker, and people were falling, and people were standing on them. It was horrible."

She tells me she saw someone getting stabbed just "five or six rows" from where she was sitting. "I could have been next," she says.

She said the train was still on the move, with passengers trying to get the driver to stop, before it made the unscheduled stop at Huntingdon station.

There, she says, the conductor managed to open the door and people began fleeing.

After exiting the train, she says she then saw the suspected attacker jumping over a fence.

Amira and her friend then hid out in a taxi until police arrived.

"I saw how the man got Tasered and fell onto the ground next to the red bins," she says, describing it as a "moment of relief".

"I don’t think I’ll be able to sit on a train anymore," Amira says, adding: "I feel so vulnerable."