The hero train driver who helped save passengers’ lives during a knife attack in Huntingdon is a Royal Navy and Iraq War veteran, it has been revealed.
Andrew Johnson, of Peterborough, rapidly diverted the London-bound train to Huntingdon station after being alerted to the mass stabbing, enabling emergency services to act fast.
The terrifying 15-minute knife rampage on Saturday evening left 11 people hospitalised, with two remaining in a ‘life-threatening condition’ on Sunday.
Two British nationals were being held on suspicion of attempted murder. One has since been released without further action.
Mr Johnson, who has been working as a train driver since 2018, served in the Royal Navy for 17 years, it is understood.
He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 during the second Gulf War.
He is understood to have finished his career as a Chief Petty Officer, after working as a weapons engineer.
The 6.25pm LNER service from Doncaster to King’s Cross in London had departed Peterborough station at 7.30pm when the knife attack started.
Mr Johnson was fundraising for the Royal British Legion at Waitrose supermarket just days before the attack, The Telegraph first reported.
Striking footage, obtained by the Daily Mail, shows confused victims looking around themselves asking ‘where are we’ as they stumble off the platform holding blood-stained rags.
Sirens can be heard blaring as a passenger holds a white rag to his head, with crimson-coloured blood seeping through.
An attendant cries ‘everyone out’ while the person filming says ‘that’s mad’ as he records the injured gentleman walking away.
British Transport Police received reports of the incident at 7.42pm on Saturday before racing to the scene, where armed officers boarded the train and detained two suspects. One has since been released without further action.
Eye witness Olly Foster said he heard passengers shout ‘run, run’ onboard the LNER Doncaster to London King’s Cross train.
Police said 11 people were treated in hospital and two remained in a ‘life-threatening condition’, while four had been discharged.
There is ‘nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident’, officers added on Sunday.
Mr Foster said he had been listening to Audible on his phone in Coach H when warnings began to sound from other passengers.
He told the BBC: ‘There were a few of us kind of looking at each other, thinking was it a joke – like, it’s Halloween, they might be pranking.
‘But then you could kind of see in their faces they were running.
‘There was a girl, bless her, who was really, really in a bit of a state because the guy actually tried to stab her – and one of the older guys who was an absolute hero blocked it with his head.’
Mr Foster said the hero gentleman received a gash to his neck and head, prompting other passengers to hand him their jackets to help him stem the blood.
A number of people took to social media to praise the ‘hero old man’ who ‘put his head in the way to save a child’.
One X user said: ‘Praying for the victims of this horror. Praise for the man who shielded the young girl.
‘Thanks to the first responders and those caring for the injured.’
