Man hit Huntingdon train attack suspect with his car

A father has claimed he hit the alleged Huntingdon attacker with his car as he tried to make his escape.

Dave Scott, 57, was waiting to pick up his daughter at the railway station in Cambridgeshire on Saturday evening when he says a man with a knife approached his vehicle.

Moments later, Anthony Williams, 32, was arrested by officers over the stabbing of ten people on the 6.25pm Doncaster train to London King’s Cross.

The train was diverted to Huntingdon shortly after leaving Peterborough.

Mr Scott, parked up in his BMW, said he spotted a group of people sprinting across the platform but simply thought it was some teenagers ‘pratting’ around.

But then the father noticed more panicking passengers escaping the station before witnessing the armed man walking towards him.

‘He was under the light at the time so it sort of shadowed him out and he was just heading straight for me. At that point I could see he had a knife in his hand,’ Mr Scott said.

‘He came straight to my car and, if I remember rightly, he tried the door, couldn’t get in and he started chopping down on the top of my car.’

Mr Scott added: ‘It was a case of fight or flight, and I just powered away as quick as I could, also taking him with [me].’ 

He told the BBC that a thought crossed his mind about running over the knife-wielding man again, but at that moment police officers arrived on the scene.

The father then used his headlights to light up the car park in order for the police to see better.

Mr Scott added that the ‘adrenaline was still pumping’ following the arrest and he was extremely relieved to hear his daughter Helena was not on the train.

She had instead been diverted to another stop in Cambridgeshire and made her way home via other methods.

Williams appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Monday charged with ten counts of attempted murder after passengers were stabbed on the LNER train.

He is further accused of attempting to kill a man who was stabbed at Pontoon Dock Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in east London the night before the train attack, as well as one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of possession of a bladed article.

He will be remanded in custody until a hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on December 1.

The suspect is understood to have boarded the service at Peterborough before allegedly rampaging through the moving carriages.

Passengers ran through the vehicle, barricading themselves in toilets and behind the shutters of the onboard shop in the buffet car in a bid to protect themselves.

On Tuesday, British Transport Police (BTP) formally linked the investigation into the train attack with four other stabbing or knife incidents in the 24 hours leading up to the rampage.

The other incidents included the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy in Peterborough city centre on October 31 and, minutes later, a confrontation with staff and customers at a nearby barber’s shop.

Exclusive footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows a man alleged to be Williams pulling a knife and entering Ritzy Barbers near Peterborough station at 7.25pm on Friday.

He was then allegedly spotted again outside the barber’s shop at 9.16am the following day – barely ten hours before he allegedly boarded the train at Peterborough station – but police took half an hour to respond.

By the time officers finally arrived, the suspect had vanished.

One of the barbers, Cody Greene, 23, told the Daily Mail: ‘Even though we called the police, I feel guilty because it could have been prevented if action had been taken.

‘Why did they not believe us until it’s actually too late?’

It comes after it was revealed the hero of the Huntingdon train attack used a frying pan to battle the suspected knifeman so passengers could flee to safety. 

Brave rail worker Samir Zitouni, 48, is understood to have grabbed the cookware from the galley kitchen and put himself in harm’s way to save people’s lives.

His heroic actions were commended on Tuesday night in the House of Lords by Lord Hanson of Flint, who called for his ‘tremendous bravery’ to be recognised.

The rail worker’s neighbour Ray Zarb described his friend as a ‘very cool customer’ and ‘a fit guy’.

Speaking about Mr Zitouni’s bravery, he told Good Morning Britain: ‘It doesn’t surprise me, really, when you think about it. But knowing it, hearing it, and finding out it’s him, is absolutely incredible.’

Mr Zitouni, who has worked for London North Eastern Railway (LNER) for more than 20 years, was one of 11 people injured during the mass stabbing on board the 6.25 service from Doncaster to London King’s Cross on Saturday night.

He remains in hospital in a stable but ‘critically unwell’ condition following the attack.

Home Office minister Lord Hanson said Mr Zitouni was ‘the sort of person who would normally be serving tea or refreshments’.

‘But he has stepped up to the plate and put his own life at risk in taking really strong steps here,’ he told the House of Lords last night.

‘I think we should recognise that point that this is an act of tremendous bravery, and I wish him well.’

Meanwhile, a petition has been set up calling for Nottingham Forest fan and train passenger Stephen Crean to be honoured after he rushed to take on the alleged attacker with his bare hands.

Mr Crean, who was returning from watching Nottingham Forest draw 2-2 with Manchester United, said he heard the screams of injured passengers and walked through the buffet car to a carriage where he came face to face with the attacker.

Mr Crean recalled: ‘He had a great big oversized kitchen knife – it was as if it was a Japanese sword or something. He came towards me and said to me, “Do you want to die?”‘

He said he confronted the attacker to give another passenger time to close the buffet door behind him – allowing others to hide and potentially preventing dozens of injuries.

Mr Crean, who was subsequently locked in with the knifeman, was stabbed in his left hand, three times in his back, once on his bottom and twice in his head before he managed to find an empty toilet to hide in.

Last night, as BTP formally linked the investigation into the train attack to four other stabbing or knife incidents in the 25 hours leading up to the rampage, further details emerged about train driver Andrew Johnson’s efforts to divert the train to Huntingdon for the unscheduled stop.

A rail source said the driver was forced to override a door alarm triggered by a terrified passenger to prevent the train from stopping automatically, and then liaised with signallers to change the points in order for the service to be routed towards Huntingdon, instead of its next scheduled stop at Stevenage, further south.

The source added: ‘He had to slow the train down to 20mph in order to give them time to switch the train onto the slow line into Huntingdon.’

Sir Keir Starmer thanked the ‘heroic actions’ of train staff, including Mr Zitouni, who put themselves in harm’s way to save ‘countless lives’.