On Saturday night a train from Doncaster bound for London was dramatically diverted after an alarm was raised on board. A man armed with a large knife, who is believed to have joined the train at Peterborough, carried out a vicious attack on multiple victims. Within 20 minutes a suspect had been arrested in Cambridgeshire, more than 70 miles from the train’s intended destination of King’s Cross in London.

Eleven people were treated in hospital, where one person remains in a stable but critical condition. The BBC has spoken to train passengers and stabbing victims alongside video and police statements to build a picture of how the attack and the emergency response unfolded.

‘You need to run, you need to run’

The attack started just over an hour after the LNER train left Doncaster. At 19:29 it had pulled out of Peterborough station, where the suspect had apparently boarded. Just five minutes later the alarm was pulled near the middle of the train in coach J.

Amira Ostalski and a friend, both students at Nottingham University, had got on the train at the previous stop of Grantham and were travelling to London to “have some fun”.

Amira was seated watching a film when she saw a man in a white shirt leap out of his seat about five rows in front of her followed by screams of “knife, knife”. Amira then spotted a man holding a large kitchen knife and fled towards the rear of the train with her friend.

In the next carriage, coach H, YouTuber Olly Foster heard shouts of “run, run, there’s a guy literally stabbing everyone”, and initially thought it was a Halloween prank. But as passengers began pushing through the carriage Olly could see “blood all over the chair” he had leaned on, covering his hand in blood.

Olly then saw an older man, thought to be an LNER staff member, who “blocked” the attacker from stabbing a younger girl, leaving him with a gash on his head and neck.

Nottingham Forest fan Joe, 24, was not meant to be on the train. He had watched the team’s football match against Manchester United earlier and missed a connecting train in Grantham.

Joe was texting his friends about his plans for the night when people came rushing through the carriage. “You need to run, you need to run,” someone told Joe. He started running but when he turned to look behind him saw “a tall black male” holding “a bloodied knife”.

Matt Kingston took his headphones out as he saw a group of people heading his way in coach H and also began running down the train. Another Nottingham Forest fan Alistair Day, 58, was next to the train’s cafe bar in coach G, and saw people fleeing down the train with blood on their clothes.

Sheltering inside the cafe

The train’s cafe bar transformed into an impromptu hiding space for those fleeing the attacker. Alistair said he saw around a dozen people inside this enclosed buffet counter in coach G and they were “trying to close up the shutters” to protect themselves from the assailant. Matt had managed to get inside the booth with the others.

Alistair saw the man near the door waving a knife and trying to open the shutters, which by then had been locked. A video he provided to the BBC from inside the cafe bar shows multiple passengers inside, with at least one on the phone to emergency services. Alistair and another witness, Tom McLaughlan, told the BBC they saw a Nottingham Forest fan move to confront the attacker. “He wasn’t the biggest guy. We tried to stop him,” Alistair said.

It appears they were referring to Stephen Crean who later told the BBC the man pulled out a large knife when he confronted him outside the cafe bar. “He’s gone for me and there was a tussle in the arms and that’s where my hand, the fingers are really bad, four cuts through them, sliced. And then he raised it and must have caught me when I was ducking and diving and caught me on the head.”

Stephen said he had been trying to give another passenger time to close the door to the cafe bar. “That door still wasn’t shut behind me, because I could still see him struggling to close it. So until I knew it was I wasn’t moving away from it.”

Matt said the attacker then walked past the locked door while waving the knife around. “He then returned back up the train and passed us again.” At that point a young man told Matt he’d been stabbed in the chest “so I helped with putting pressure on the wound and helped hold him up”.

Another victim of the train attack was Scunthorpe United footballer Jonathan Gjoshe, who was slashed across the bicep and later needed an operation.

Alarm raised and train diverted

As soon as the alarm was raised the train driver, Andrew Johnson, a Royal Navy veteran, sprang into action and contacted the control centre. The decision was made to divert the train, which was travelling at 125mph (201km/h), to a slow track, which allowed it stop at Huntingdon Station just minutes after the emergency services were first called.

The East of England Ambulance Service received the first emergency call at 19:38. A minute later, Cambridgeshire police received a report about multiple stabbings on a train. Together, they mobilised a response team outside Huntingdon Station, just under 300m away from the police force’s headquarters. At 19:41 the train arrived at the station, a minute before British Transport Police were also called to the incident.

Escape at Huntingdon Station

1:39Watch: Police rush to scene of Cambridgeshire train attack

CCTV footage captured by a business in its car park shows passengers running up platform two towards the main station building. A dramatic TikTok video, filmed from a bridge on Brampton Road overlooking the rail tracks and station, shows police officers running towards the train along the same platform.

Tom saw two men who appeared to have been stabbed “covered in blood” as he fled the train. Alistair said he saw a man who had been in the cafe bar with him being carried towards an ambulance by paramedics. “I just want to know he’s okay,” he said.

Emergency services took 10 people to hospital where a further victim was treated. Six patients have since been discharged.

The LNER staff member who remains in a critical but stable condition “undoubtedly saved people’s lives” by trying to stop the attacker, British Transport Police said.

Forced to flee again

CCTV footage shows a man climbing a fence at the station at 19:43 to an adjacent car park while holding a knife.

Amira, who had been hiding at the back of coach G armed with a metal tray to fight off the attacker if necessary, had run to the car park with her friend for safety when they got off the train.

But they saw the man walk in their direction. Fearing for their lives, they hid in a taxi. An image captured by Amira’s friend through its windscreen shows the man being detained by six police officers near several bins in the car park, around 50m (160ft) from the fence.

Video filmed from a separate taxi nearby shows the officers armed with guns, Tasers and accompanied by a dog detaining a man on the ground. Clicks from the Taser are audible in the footage.

By 19:50 police had two men in custody, 32-year-old Anthony Williams, and a 35-year-old man who was released a day later after police established he was not involved. On Monday morning Williams appeared in court charged with 10 counts of attempted murder over the train attack.

Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir said on Thursday that Pakistan sought peace with all neighbours, including Afghanistan, but reiterated that the country will not allow cross-border terrorism to be perpetrated from Afghan soil.

According to a statement from the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Field Marshal Munir made the comments during a trip to Peshawar, where he held an interactive session with a jirga of tribal elders. Later on, he was given a comprehensive briefing at Headquarters 11 Corps on the prevailing security environment, operational preparedness and ongoing counter terrorism efforts to maintain peace and stability along the Pak-Afghan border.

Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have worsened sharply in recent weeks, marked by border clashes and mutual accusations. Islamabad has repeatedly warned Kabul against permitting the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to use Afghan territory for attacks — an allegation the Taliban reject. After a ceasefire, both sides initiated talks in Turkiye to develop a mechanism for monitoring Taliban measures to curb cross-border assaults, but discussions have so far reached a stalemate.

While addressing the jirga, Field Marshal Munir highlighted that “despite the continuation of cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan, Pakistan, over the last few years has exercised patience and extended multiple diplomatic and economic overtures to Afghanistan, aimed at improving Pak-Afghan bilateral relations.”

“However, instead of acting decisively against Indian-sponsored terror proxies Fitna Al Khwarij and Fitna Al Hindustan, [the] Afghan Taliban regime has been providing all possible assistance to these groups,” the statement said.

Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while Balochistan-based groups have been designated Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan.

It added that during the interaction, the COAS assured the tribal elders that Pakistan, particularly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will be “cleansed of the terrorists and their abettors.”

The army chief also appreciated the “steadfast and unconditional support” rendered by the tribal people to the security forces during the recent standoff between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban.

“He paid rich tribute to the resilience and sacrifices of the brave people of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa in [the] war against terrorism,” the statement said, adding that the tribal elders reiterated their “full support to the armed forces against terrorism and also against the Afghan Taliban.”

Per the statement, the tribal elders appreciated the candid discourse by the COAS and expressed their unwavering commitment to peace in Pakistan and highlighted that the “twisted ideology” of the Fitna al Khwarij had no acceptance among the tribes of KP.

“When I heard the attack happened, the ground fell from beneath my feet. All the parents started running towards the bus, no-one could understand what was going on,” Nasir Mehmood, a sergeant in Pakistan’s army tells us.

Nasir and I are in the city of Quetta, sitting in the waiting room of the largest military hospital in the province of Balochistan. His 14-year-old son Mohammad Ahmad told him he was flung across the army school bus in a bombing in Khuzdar, a few hours’ drive away.

The bus was carrying around 40 schoolchildren when it exploded at about 07:40 local time (02:40 GMT) on Wednesday.

“I reached the hospital, and there were screams of children everywhere, it was the only thing you could hear,” Nasir said. “My eyes just kept searching for my son.”

Only the most serious cases were airlifted to the Combined Military Hospital. The military have said the death toll has now risen to eight, with six children killed and dozens injured. No group has admitted carrying out the attack.

It is rare for foreign journalists to be allowed to enter the province, south-west of Pakistan, let alone a hospital on the army’s compound. The military said they wanted international media to witness the impact of the attack themselves.

Pakistan alleges India is linked to the attack, though there is no independent evidence – and it is a claim Delhi firmly denies.

India and Pakistan are in the midst of a fragile ceasefire, after a two-week conflict that was their most significant one in decades. It saw them exchange drone attacks, missiles and artillery fire, and left dozens of casualties.

This attack in Balochistan is now in the middle of the tensions, with news channels broadcasting pictures of the children who were killed, most of them girls between the ages of 12 and 16, alongside accusations of an “Indian terror campaign”. Images of scrapped metal, children’s shoes and abandoned backpacks strewn along the scene highlight the tragedy.

As we walked through the intensive care unit, some children lay unconscious on their beds, others thrashed in pain. One young girl kept calling out for her mother as nurses tried to calm her. Doctors told us several children were in critical condition, having suffered extensive trauma, burns and fractured bones. The night before we arrived, another child had died.

Pakistan’s Minister of Information, Attaullah Tarar, says there is a history of Indian proxies operating in Balochistan. In turn, India says that Pakistan has been harbouring militants who wage attacks on Indian-administered Kashmir for years.

The killing of 26 people in April, most of them tourists in Pahalgam, sparked the most recent conflict. Pakistan has called for an open investigation led by an independent party.

However, Tarar denied that such an investigation was necessary in Balochistan.

“Pahalgam was a one-off incident,” he told us. “We are the victims in this case. We have been suffering. There is a history. We have evidence. So what can I say?”

When we asked him what that evidence was, he once again pointed to claims of a history of attacks. He gave us no other details of India’s alleged involvement in this attack.

A turbulent province

Later, an officer drove us through Quetta’s roads in a bus flanked by soldiers carrying rifles and ammunition hanging from their pockets.

Balochistan has experienced decades of militant attacks linked to a nationalist insurgency. It is home to several groups which accuse the government of exploiting its natural resources.

In March, some 21 people, most of them off-duty security personnel, were killed during a train siege in Balochistan’s remote Sibi district.

That attack was carried out by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

Pakistan, as well as several Western countries, including the UK and US, have designated the BLA as a terrorist organisation.

As the military responds to the insurgency, activists in Balochistan accuse Pakistan’s security forces of human rights violations. They say thousands of ethnic Baloch people have been disappeared in the last two decades, and are allegedly detained without due legal process.

The minister of information told us the government believed “faceless courts” might be needed in the province, hiding the identities of the judges and prosecutors in terror cases. Tarar said the courts often fail to convict the accused, because of a fear of retribution from militant groups.

In a press conference, the military spokesperson, Lt Gen Chaudhry, said the school bus attack “had nothing to do with the Baloch identity, rather it was just India’s provocation”.

The government says it is raising the issue “across diplomatic channels” around the world.

The impact on the ceasefire and on the prospect of talks between India and Pakistan remains to be seen.

Additional reporting by Malik Mudassir