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HUNTINGDON, United Kingdom: UK police said they had arrested two suspects Saturday as “a number of people” were taken to hospital and a “large-scale” emergency response was mobilized after a stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.
“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” British Transport Police said on X, adding that “two people have been arrested.”

Cambridgeshire police said: “A number of people have been taken to hospital.”
A witness described seeing a man with a large knife and told The Times newspaper there was “blood everywhere” as people hid in the washrooms.
Some passengers were getting “stamped (on) by others” as they tried to run, and the witness told The Times they “heard some people shouting we love (you).”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “appalling” incident was “deeply concerning.”
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said in a statement on X.
“Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” Starmer added, while his interior minister Shabana Mahmood confirmed two people had been taken into custody.

‘Multiple patients’

Armed police were at the scene after being alerted around 7:40 p.m. local time (1940 GMT) and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, a market town in east England, police said.
Dozens of emergency vehicles were deployed at the station, and people were being led away in space blankets, an AFP photographer saw.
Local ambulance services mobilized a “large-scale response” to the station including ambulances, air ambulances and tactical commanders.
“We can confirm we have transported multiple patients to hospital,” the East of England Ambulance Service said on X.
Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said all its railway lines had been closed while emergency services dealt with the incident at Huntingdon station.
LNER, which runs trains along the east of England and Scotland, urged passengers not to travel, warning of “major disruption.”
It serves major stops including in London, Peterborough, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh, and trains are often very busy, and packed with travelers.
The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Paul Bristow said in a post on X: “Hearing reports of horrendous scenes on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,” adding that his “thoughts are with everyone affected.”

Knife crime

Knife crime in England and Wales has been steadily rising since 2011, according to official government data.
While Britain has some of the strictest gun controls in the world, rampant knife crime has been branded a “national crisis” by Starmer.
His Labour government has tried to rein in their use.
Nearly 60,000 blades have been either “seized or surrendered” in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Carrying a knife in public can already get you up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 percent in the last year.
Two people were killed — one as a result of misdirected police gunfire — and others wounded in a stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester at the start of October in an attack which shook the local Jewish community and the country.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Authorities confiscated more than $2 million worth of weapons during a recent anti-drug raid in Rio de Janeiro, the deadliest in Brazil’s history, the state government said Saturday.
On Tuesday, the massive police operation in two favela complexes left at least 117 suspected criminals and four police officers dead, according to the latest official tally.
The Rio de Janeiro state government announced “one of the largest seizures” of military weapons in a single day from the raid — 120 weapons in all, including 93 rifles, valued at 12.8 million reais (about $2.4 million).
They also found ammunition, explosives, drugs and military equipment in the raid, which targeted Comando Vermelho, one of the oldest and most powerful gangs in the country, which controls large swathes of Rio de Janeiro.
According to authorities, some of the weapons come from other countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Peru, Russia and Venezuela, and included models used in conflict zones such as the AK-47 and the FAL.
Some rifles belong to foreign militaries.
“We are looking at an arsenal typical of a war scenario,” Rio de Janeiro Civil Police Secretary Felipe Curi said in a statement.
Curi said authorities would investigate the routes used by criminal groups to bring the weapons to Rio de Janeiro.
The police raid has drawn condemnation from human rights organizations, and the United Nations has called for an investigation.
Relatives of some of the victims denounced summary executions. An AFP journalist on the scene saw a decapitated body.
Polls, however, show that the majority of Brazilians approved of the operation, which was described as a success against “narco-terrorism” by state Governor Claudio Castro.
Even leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, accused by critics of being soft on crime, has sought to project a tougher stance against the gangs in his response to the raid.
“We cannot accept that organized crime continues to destroy families, oppress residents, and spread drugs and violence throughout the cities,” Lula wrote on the X social media platform.
He has presented a bill to Congress proposing a 30-year prison sentence for members of criminal gangs.
On Thursday, Lula signed new measures into law to strengthen the fight against organized crime.