For the passengers travelling on the 6.35pm LNER service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross on Saturday evening the terror and confusion started just after leaving Peterborough station, when a man wielding a large knife ran through the train, stabbing 11 people, leaving nine with life-threatening injuries.
Those on the train were in a confined space with an attacker, with no way to escape, nor any way of knowing when the train was going to stop.
The nature of a knife attack is almost always an ambush – unexpected, quick and at very close quarters – and, despite increased police activity and investment into the prevention of knife crime, the number of incidents is not dropping.
From April 2024 to March 2025, there were 49,600 offences with a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales (excluding Greater Manchester), with London being the worst affected. This was just a 1.4 per cent drop from 2023/24.
So, what should you do if you find yourself face to face with a knife attacker?
SAS veteran John Geddes, who served in the Parachute Regiment and is now managing director of his own private protection service company, has some advice:
1. If you can, get out of the way and call the emergency services
Try to get out of the situation, and out of danger. On Saturday people locked themselves in the loo, shuttered themselves in the buffet car or moved along the carriages.
2. Take the initiative and take action
It sounds counter-intuitive, but taking the initiative is about changing the psychology of the situation. At the moment of attack, when someone is stabbed or an attacker pulls a knife, the attacker is the one with the power and the weapon.
In a close quarters situation, where there is nowhere to run, the best course of action is to attack the attacker. This will be the last thing they expect.
3. Make loud noises and throw things
Shout and scream as loud as you can, charging at the attacker, encouraging people to join you. Throw hot coffee in their face, anything you can to get a split second advantage and distract them.
4. Grab a brolly
This is not a fair fight. You will need to use everything and anything that you can to help disarm and stop the person who is trying to hurt you and the people around you. This could be a bottle of beer, a handbag, suitcase or umbrella. Even a heavy belt will work at a pinch. Something longer will give you more leverage and more distance from the attacker, but something hard or sharp can do the job just as well if you can get close without putting yourself in danger.
5. On approach aim for the wrist holding the knife
Pain is a great persuader in situations like this. As you are approaching the attacker with your weapon of choice – walking stick, brolly, handbag – try to hit their wrist. If they are approaching with their weaker hand held out to protect themselves, try to hit the knife out of their dominant hand, which they might be holding close to their body. It will shock them and in an ideal world disarm them and give you the chance to take them down.
6. Go for the sensitive spots
Aim for their weak points – the eyes with the point of your umbrella, or in closer contact, with your fingers. Knee them in the groin. Elbow them in the throat. Especially if you are smaller than your attacker, who may be relying on brute force. Going for these three spots is where your limited chance to fight back will have the biggest impact.
7. Try to take them down
Trip them up with an umbrella or walking stick. If they are disarmed by that first hit, try to bring them down to stop them getting the knife back or attacking other people.
It all sounds a bit medieval and savage, I know, but in these situations where you cannot run and hide there is no choice but to fight. According to Urban, Fit and Fearless, a self-defence programme, knife attacks tend to involve lots of short repetitive stabs at different angles. So trying to distract the person by fighting back is really important.
8. Block using the bone of your forearm, wrapped in a coat
There are two sides of your arm: the bony side where your watch face tends to sit and the soft side where your arteries are. You do not want the attacker’s knife to slice an artery so protect yourself by offering up the bony side of your arm draped in a coat and try to hit their throat or eyes with your other hand.
9. Work together with the people around you
Unless you are specially-trained it is hard to take someone down and disarm them alone, so embrace the unhinged group mentality of your inner football hooligan. The more people work together, the more chance there is of overpowering the attacker with no one being harmed. This could mean several people combining various bits of the advice above. If you get the attacker on the ground, for instance, another person can stomp on their wrist to encourage them to release the knife, which can then be kicked out of the way.
10. If people around you are bleeding, apply pressure
You must apply direct pressure to any wounds that are bleeding. If it is an arterial wound – blood will be spurting – pressure could stop someone bleeding out. In the worst case scenario a tourniquet might be needed. Take a strip of fabric – tights work well – wrap it around the limb four to six inches above the wound and tie that up with a pencil or pen then wind it tighter, and ignore the screaming because the tourniquet hurts. There is no way around that, but you might save a life as well as a limb.
11. Be brave but not stupid
A tragic and terrifying situation like Saturday evening is not fight or flight, it is fight or die because there is nowhere to run to. So you need to be brave. I too would be scared in that situation and I have more than 40 years of experience in conflict scenarios.
It’s not about how scared you might be, it’s about seeing the situation and mentally steeling yourself, knowing that every single second counts. It’s in our DNA to survive. Trust your instincts and your body will know what to do.
