A knife attack on a train in the middle of the day left a man with life-threatening injuries and “traumatised” onlooking school children. Not in some wartorn developing country (officially, anyway), but in the capital of England.
The incident took place before 4 p.m on Wednesday on a train in southeast London. Police said the two men boarded the train while fighting. The victim is still receiving treatment in hospital, while the attacker, who is understood to have been caught on CCTV footage near the station holding a large knife, remained at large until police announced the arrest of a 19 year-old male.
Linda, a 70-year-old commuter, arrived at the station shortly after the attack where she saw “loads of school kids and commotion.”
There was a little boy crying and two ladies with him, and as I walked past one of the ladies said, “he saw it.”
A video of the incident has also been widely shared on social media, prompting a debate over the possible return of train guards.
One Daily Telegraph editor, Sam Ashworth-Hayes, suggested that this would make little difference “unless the train guards would be carrying guns.”
What we need to do is put more people in jail. Living with crime is a choice. You can cut it massively by simply locking up repeat offenders.
Others, including Reform UK leader Richard Tice, described the stabbing as evidence—as if more was needed—of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s “weak” and “feeble leadership on knife crime.” While knife and gun crimes surge in the city, the Mayor has spent time renaming London Overground train lines to celebrate diversity.
Tice’s argument became even harder to dispute just a few hours later, when police officers were forced to lock down Kennington underground station due to another (reportedly unrelated) stabbing; this time, an attack on more than one victim, which officers described as “senseless.”
The second assailant has also not been detained, although one of their victims is understood to have been injured after “bravely stepping in to try to prevent the attack.”
One commuter close to the first incident told reporters that she was “familiar with similar situations [to the attack],” adding: “I hear about it all the time.”
