Passengers thought mass train attack 'was a joke'

Published4 November 2026, 11:54 GMT

Some train passengers initially remained sitting down and thought a man was joking after he told people "I've been stabbed, run", a court has heard.

Anthony Williams stabbed 10 people on the train which made an unscheduled stop in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on 1 November last year.

Cambridge Crown Court heard the first person who was stabbed, Jonathan Gjoshe, later asked hospital staff "am I going to die today?".

Williams, 33, of Langford Road in Peterborough, denies 10 counts of attempted murder, and four other alleged attempted murders in earlier incidents in Peterborough and London.

A second stabbing victim said Williams ran away when his pet cockapoo fought back, and another said he threw luggage at the attacker to fend him off.

Jurors have seen CCTV footage of Williams' attack, which took place on the York to London King's Cross LNER service, after it had left Peterborough.

The court was played a video interview with Gjoshe, who said he was on his phone in carriage J at the time and initially thought Williams was someone he knew.

"I've made eye contact with him… he's pulled a knife, but I just think it was the way he's poked me, the way he's stabbed me, it was a bit weird because it was slow."

Gjoshe said that once he felt a shock "that's when the adrenalin kicked in" and he jumped over the train table.

He said his whole arm was "drenched with blood" and went through the carriage telling people "I've been stabbed, run", but said some other people on the train remained "sitting down, thinking it was a joke".

"It was like a movie, it was quite horrific."

He spent four days in hospital and asked staff "am I going to die today or not? please tell me this".

Jurors then watched a video interview with another stabbing victim, Sachin Balakrishnan, who was a passenger in the same carriage.

He said he heard "screaming", then saw "people trying to jump over the seats" and running, then a man with a "big knife" who "was saying something but nothing meaningful".

Balakrishnan said he "ran and ran and ran", adding: "This guy was running behind me, there was nowhere to go. Nowhere was safe."

He said "everyone was running for their lives" and then he felt pain in his right arm.

In Court: Huntingdon Train Attack

Follow all the developments from the trial as they unfold on our BBC podcast In Court

The court also heard from David Presland, who said he was on his hands and knees on the floor when he was stabbed by Williams.

The 73-year-old said "I thought I was going to die" and "I'm lucky I survived."

Presland said another passenger called Kevin came to his aid.

Scott Green, who was travelling with his cockapoo Poppy in the next carriage along, said he initially thought there was a fight happening, before he "felt a jab" into his side.

In a recording of his interview, he said he fought back and told himself, "If I don't get this knife now I think he's going to kill me".

"I've tried to yank it... but I couldn't remove it," said Green.

He said his dog "went into attack mode" and startled the attacker, before Williams "done a runner".

Green described how a woman had "thrown him" to safety into a toilet, who subsequently joked: "I don't usually get in with men who I just met in the toilet".

He said the attacker was "just dead in the eyes, real dead... like he weren't there".

'I was going to die there'

A fifth passenger, Kevin Deely, remembered shouting to Williams: "You don't have to do this, you don't have to do this."

In his recorded account, he described trying to shield a woman and throwing a piece of luggage at the assailant.

"It started to dawn on me I've been stabbed but I've no recollection of the event itself," Deely recalled.

He said his head was bleeding and others "started passing clothing back to us" to stem the bleeding.

"I remember feeling I was going to die there," he remembered.

Williams is also accused of attempting to murder Raza Aslam, Scott Bletcher, Stephen Crean, Kevin Deely, Michael Paffett, and Samir Zitouni on the London-bound train between Peterborough and Huntingdon on 1 November.

Prosecutors further allege that on 31 October, Williams tried to kill three people in Peterborough, before attempting to murder a teenager in the early hours of 1 November on a DLR train in east London.

Whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in question - the court has been told - but jurors must consider whether he intended to kill.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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