LONDON — British police dismissed speculation on Sunday that a mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train the previous evening was terrorist-related and said two people who were injured in the incident remain in life-threatening condition.
Police also said that two men, born in the United Kingdom, remain in custody. They were arrested eight minutes after the first emergency calls were made from aboard the train, where passengers had reported scenes of acute fear and chaos.
“This is a shocking incident and my thoughts are with those who have been injured and their families,” British Transport Police Superintendent John Loveless said outside the station in Huntingdon in eastern England where the train halted soon after the attack.
“There is nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident,” he added.
The two arrested remain in custody, he said and added that one is a 32-year-old Black British man, the other is a 35-year-old man of Caribbean descent.
Loveless also gave an update on those injured in the attack, reducing the number in life-threatening condition from nine to two. He said four of the injured have now been discharged and that one other person had arrived at the hospital, taking the overall number injured in the attack to 11.
On Saturday night, bloodied passengers had spilled out of the long-distance train when it made an emergency stop in the town of Huntingdon, a market town around 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of London. Dozens of police waited, some of them armed, and the two suspects were arrested within eight minutes of the first calls to emergency services, Loveless said.
During the immediate response to the attack, the police force said that “Plato,” the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to what could be a “marauding terror attack,” was initiated. That declaration was later rescinded but no motive for the attack has been disclosed.
“At this early stage it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident,” Loveless said.
The attack took place as the train from Doncaster in northern England to London’s King’s Cross station was about halfway through its 2-hour journey and approaching Huntingdon.
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 a day after Halloween. But as passengers pushed past him to get away, he noticed his hand was covered in blood from a chair he had leaned on.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his “thoughts are with all those affected” after the “appalling incident.”
King Charles III sent his sympathies and thoughts to those affected and said he was “truly appalled and shocked to hear of the dreadful knife attack.”
London North Eastern Railway, or LNER, which operates the East Coast Mainline services in the U.K., confirmed the incident had happened on one of its trains and said there would be major disruption on the route until Monday.
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