Train passenger feared attacker might be suicide bomber, court hears

A passenger on the train where a mass stabbing took place told a court he initially feared the attacker might be a suicide bomber as he tried to escape along the carriage.

Milan Campion was travelling on a London-bound LNER service on 1 November last year when it made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon. At Cambridge Crown Court, jurors heard a video interview in which Campion described people shouting that a man had a knife and passengers running down the aisle.

“I thought it might have been a suicide bomber so I need to get as far away as possible,” he said. Campion told the court he later spoke to Anthony Williams in the train’s catering section, asking him what he was trying to do and telling him it was “not worth it”.

Williams, 33, from Peterborough, denies 10 counts of attempted murder relating to the train attack. He is also charged with four further attempted murders over alleged incidents in Peterborough and London.

The court heard that Campion had earlier opened a toilet door and found Williams inside. Another witness, Dinaria Soares, said she saw Williams strike footballer Jonathan Gjoshe on the shoulder before noticing a knife and a forceful stabbing motion.

Prosecutors allege Williams attempted to kill 10 people on the train, three people in Peterborough on 31 October and a teenager on a DLR train in east London in the early hours of 1 November. The court has heard that whether he carried out the attacks is not in question; jurors must decide whether he intended to kill. The trial continues.