London | Ten people, including nine suffering from life-threatening injuries, were rushed to hospital after a stabbing attack on a train in the UK's Cambridgeshire, following which armed police arrested two men in connection with the incident on Saturday evening, authorities said.
According to British Transport Police, ten people are in hospital, with nine believed to have life-threatening injuries, BBC reported.
Police have declared it a "major incident" and confirmed that counter-terrorism officers would be supporting the investigation, the report said.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary said its officers are working with British Transport Police (BTP) after they intercepted the train in Huntingdon, and the injured were taken to hospital.
“We were called at 7:39 pm (local time) with reports that multiple people had been stabbed on a train,” Cambridgeshire Constabulary said in a statement.
“Armed officers attended, and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, where two men were arrested,” the police said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took to social media to condemn the “appalling incident” and urged people to follow police advice.
"The appalling incident on a train near Huntingdon is deeply concerning,” said Starmer.
"My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response. Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” he said.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was “deeply saddened” to hear about the stabbings in Huntingdon and urged people to “avoid comment and speculation at this early stage”.
“Two suspects have been immediately arrested and taken into custody. I am receiving regular updates on the investigation,” she said.
A "large-scale response" has been deployed by the East of England Ambulance Service, which said numerous ambulances, tactical commanders and its Hazardous Area Response Team were rushed to the scene.
Critical care teams, including the East Anglian Air Ambulance and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance, attended and confirmed transporting multiple patients to hospital”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that the incident "seems to be a brutal mass attack".
"My thoughts are with all those injured or affected and the emergency services responding. The police and government should provide an update on what happened and who has been arrested as soon as possible,” he said.
Roads leading into the town of Huntingdon and London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), which operates the rail network in the region, have been severely disrupted while emergency services deal with the aftermath of the stabbings.
A witness who was on the train was quoted by ‘Sky News’ as saying that he saw someone moving through his carriage, saying: "They've got a knife, I've been stabbed."
"They were making their way through the carriage to get away from the suspects. They were extremely bloodied," the man told the channel.
Knife crime in the UK has "steadily" risen since 2011, according to government statistics, the BBC reported.
It's become such a prominent issue that Keir Starmer has branded it a "national crisis", it said.
Sixty thousand knives have been either handed over or seized by police as part of a broader government crackdown over the past year. Carrying a knife in public is punishable by up to four years' imprisonment, the report said.
