Victim of Huntingdon attack shares his experience
Stephen Crean says he had no choice but to fight back
Stephen Crean, one of the victims of the mass stabbing on a busy train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday, said he "didn't have much choice" but to fight back, as he recalls defending himself with nothing but his fists.
Mr Crean, 61, told the PA news agency that he was returning home from watching Nottingham Forest draw 2-2 with Manchester United, when a young woman ran through his train carriage yelling "knife, knife, there's a man with a big knife".
Mr Crean said passengers ran down the carriage into the buffet car, adding: "There was nowhere to go. I didn't have much choice."
He said the knifeman asked if he wanted to die before he felt the knife in his arm.
"He asked me, 'Do you want to die?'," he told PA.
"He repeated it. Then I remember his knife going into my arm."
Mr Crean said the knife caught him several times as he confronted the attacker on the train.
"I got caught on my fingers. He took a swing at this, and a swing at that. I got caught on the head," he told the PA news agency.
"I was lucky. I got caught on the back a few times. They caught me a few times. The front of me, and my other arm. In the face and everything."
He added: "I'm going to need plastic surgery. One finger doesn't look clever. I've had stitches on them all.
"I don't know how long it's going to take."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the "brave action" of those responding to the mass stabbing on a train on Friday has "saved countless lives".
In the Commons, he said: "I want to put on record in this House my own tribute to the police, the first responders, and in particular, to the heroic actions of both the driver and members of staff on board the Doncaster to London train, where such a vile and horrific attack took place this weekend.
"We all share in the revulsion of this shocking incident, but there's no doubt that their collective action, their brave action, saved countless lives, and I know the whole country is grateful for that."
Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson went on to accuse shadow home secretary Chris Philp of "blaming foreigners" in his speech about the Huntingdon train attack.
After accusing members of Reform UK of trying to "whip up fear and sow division", Mr Wilkinson said: "The shadow home secretary's comments today also veered into that realm.
"Never is an opportunity to blame foreigners missed. That is beneath contempt.
"At moments like this, those who aspire to leadership must calm fears and attempt to unite, not inflame tensions."
Mr Philp shouted from his seat: "I didn't blame foreigners, withdraw that!"
Responding, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "I deplore the ease with which so many armchair warriors feel the need to speculate and spread misinformation on social media. It's why it's important that the police and all of our emergency services are able to proceed with their investigations at pace, but also transparently, so as to calm down any tensions that might arise as a result of misinformation that spreads, particularly across social media.
"In terms of how other people may or may not have reacted, I tend to think at moments of such crisis, people normally reveal their true colours, and I will leave my remarks about other individuals there."
Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson accused "certain political figures on the hard-right, including members of the Reform party" of exploiting the Huntingdon train stabbing for political gain, and of reaching for "dog whistles".
Mr Wilkinson said: "After this sort of incident, it is vital that police are given the time and space they need to establish the full facts.
"That is ever more difficult, due to the rapid spread of disinformation online in the immediate aftermath of these sort of attacks. Within hours, social media was flooded with speculation over the ethnicity and race of the perpetrator, inciting racist and Islamophobic comments.
"And when communities were still reeling from the horror of this attack, certain political figures on the hard-right, including members of the Reform party, were already seeking to exploit the incident for political gain.
"Desperate to involve themselves in the tragedy, they reached for their dog whistles.
"They threw around baseless opinions on levels of crime when facts were available. They were shamelessly trying to turn tragedy into yet another excuse to whip up fear and sow division."
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said there is "much more" the Government could be doing with "new and emerging technology" to tackle knife crime.
Responding to shadow home secretary Chris Philp, Ms Mahmood said: "This Government will consult on a legal framework so that all police forces across the country can use live facial recognition technology, confident that they will not find themselves defending those decisions in courts in the future."
She added: "I think there is much more that we can do to use new and emerging technology in order to help us tackle this type of criminality."
Ms Mahmood said the "majority" of those who are in possession of a knife receive "reasonably lengthy prison sentences", adding: "When we know more about the circumstances of this particular case, we will know if there are other lessons for us to draw, and other areas of policy for us to consider."
On stop and search, she said: "The police already have the power to use stop and search indiscriminately where the intelligence suggests that that is required. That is an operational decision for police chiefs."
"This is a well-used power. It is a well-understood power. It is an important power that is in our arsenal for tackling criminality, and this Government fully supports its lawful use," she added.
The Conservatives would fully support a national rollout of facial recognition technology, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said.
He told the Commons: "Does she agree that more knife crime offenders should go to jail? This is important, because when offenders are in jail, they of course, can't attack the public. Does she agree we need to ensure more people who carry knives, especially where they use them to threaten others, are jailed?
"I know, of course, there are pressure on prison places, but by deporting more of the 10,000 foreign nationals in prison, we could create more space. We also need to take more knives off our streets, and that means we have to dramatically increase the use of stop and search."
He added: "I really do hope the Home Secretary agrees, and the police minister agrees, that rolling out (facial recognition) technology nationally will have a dramatic impact on improving public safety, and they will certainly have my full support if they choose to do that."
Mr Philp also asked for an update on the development of technology which could "distinguish knives from keys or mobile phones" arguing this "could help police rapidly identify those carrying a knife in a public place".