Last night a mass stabbing took place on a moving train that had just left Peterborough. 2 people have been arrested by armed police, and a number of people are in life-threatening condition.
At the time of writing, no motivation for the attack has been confirmed and there are no substantiated details available about the attackers.
The UK is a fantastically safe country, and attacks of this nature are rare. However, a confined space such as a moving train is a difficult space to manage in the event of an attack. How can the authorities and public keep people safe in such a space?
The reality is that you canât, if it gets to the stage of an attack being commenced itâs too late. The work all has to happen before and inevitably ones will slip through.
Following 2017 when we had 5 attacks, 3 of them major (due to complexity and method) we were told thatâs what we should expect most years for a generation (30 years or so). Weâve been incredibly lucky and the security services have done amazing work so it hasnât manifested itself, but as a nation we are quite complacent around it all.
I do think this needs recognising. The members of the intelligence and security services are damn hard workers and highly competent at what they do, but it is inevitable that on occasion someone will slip through the net.
It isnât possible to know just yet, without confirmation of details such as motives, but last night appears to be such an occurrence at first glance.
Canât really do the ârun, hide, tellâ option, canât lock internal doors, nothing in the vicinity to use in defence (suitcases?) or for a counter-attack. Fire extinguisher?
Safer to stop the train & run out into the darkness, or, wait until next station (luckily relatively close & also just around the corner from the Police HQ & hospital)? As Huntingdon was relatively close, probably the right decision, especially for immediate medical care & onward transfer to Addenbrookes for those that needed this.
If you canât make & maintain a good distance between you & an assailant, the only thing to take to a knife fight is a taser or firearm.
I would be a little surprised if this turns out to be terror, tbh.
The target doesnât make much sense. An intercity train on a Saturday evening isnât going to be particularly busy. If people were conducting a terror attack, waiting until they were in London would likely be more effective based upon numbers of potential victims in close proximity.
My thoughts right now are that this almost appears to be county lines gone wrong.
But as you say, this is all speculation right now and itâs perfectly possibly that my thoughts are utterly and entirely incorrect. Iâve been disappointed, however, at how many people Iâve seen and heard already coming out with âbloody foreignersâ or something similar without there being anything to point in that direction.
I thought that (wouldnât be the first time), but the numbers are somewhat high for a gang fight, especially with the descriptions of them going for members if the public. Unless itâs a fight with people whoâve tried to stop it getting stabbed? (Numbers are also a bit low if this was a terror attack that lasted 8 minutes). Suspect ages are also too old for County Lines.
If it were CT I would argue it makes more sense than doing it in London where you have far more armed cops and people can run away.
Almost too many people, chances of someone having a go back because they donât have a choice is very high. Also a risk of their being police, possibly even armed police at the stations.
Not to create a terrorist suggestion manual on the thread.
I see BTP have now said no reason to think itâs terrorism and that both arrested people were born in Britain.
Thatâs not what Daws or BTP are saying though. Two separate facts that are not linked. Itâs not terrorism and they are British. Theyâre not saying its not terrorism because they are British.
We donât have âno ideaâ. BTP have stated that âthereâs nothing to suggest [the stabbings] was a terrorist incidentâ. So they clearly have some ideaâŚ
The pair have been arrested on attempt murder, and not under the terrorism act.
An element that needs some praise is the professionalism of the driver. They would have taken any call from the pax that originally raised the alarm, respond, assess the situation & then coordinate with the signaller & overall train controller. The signaller would have had to cancel the automatic route (straight through stns, no platform), in good time to prevent a timeout being triggered which would have stopped the train outside of the stn. Linked to this would be the need to set up the alternative route for trains going the other way & from the driver, lots of other comms / coordination / call Police, in a very short period of time.