HARD AND FAST

Officers on board eight minutes after call, Emergency services’ speedy actions praised

- DAN WARBURTON in Huntingdon

ARMED police were praised last night for their speedy response after a knifeman went on the rampage on a busy train.

The London-bound high-speed LNER Azumo left Doncaster, Yorkshire, at 6.25pm and travelled about 75 miles before stopping in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, at 7.29pm on Saturday.

At 7.42pm, police received reports of a "multiple stabbings" on board the nine-carriage train before it made an emergency stop at Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, at 7.44pm.

Cambridgeshire Police armed officers boarded it by 7.50pm, within eight minutes of the first 999 call.

Video emerged showing a man wearing black being wrestled to the ground on the platform at the station - with one policeman heard shouting: "Get him in a f***ing hold." The taxi driver who took the video said that before the man was arrested he was shouting, "Kill me, kill me, kill me," to the officers.

Ten blood-soaked passengers were treated for their injuries on the platform before being rushed to hospital, and another victim also went to hospital later. A staff member who tried to stop the attacker was still in critical care last night.

Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, said: "This was an appalling and devastating attack.