Couple sheltered six passengers after train attack

A couple who live minutes from Huntingdon Station have described how they sheltered train passengers running away from the knife attack.

One of the six people who knocked on Jan and Les Sears’ door had blood on her clothes, while another “was so distraught”.

The couple were unaware of the attack on the Doncaster to London King’s Cross service on Saturday evening until they found a father and his two children, two friends and a young woman outside their front door.

Mrs Sears said: “We are just everyday people that would help anyone, you can’t see someone suffering, someone being frightened, you just help them.”

They provided a place of safety until the passengers’ relatives arrived to collect them.

Following the attack, Anthony Williams, 32, was arrested and appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court charged with 11 counts of attempted murder.

He was also charged with possessing a bladed article and one count of actual bodily harm in connection to an alleged assault on a police officer in custody.

Passengers had been travelling to the capital when the attack happened shortly after the LNER train had passed Peterborough.

Police received the first calls from train passengers about the incident at 19:39 GMT and soon afterwards the train was diverted to Huntingdon, an unscheduled stop on the route.

Emergency services took 10 people to Addenbrooke’s Hospital and one person later went to hospital for treatment.

On Saturday evening, the couple said they could hear the doorbell of their flat ringing and Mrs Sears urged her husband to see who was waiting outside.

She said: “Les opened the door and let them in.

“There was six people – a man and his two children and two young girls and a girl on her own – and they were told something had happened on a train and just to run as fast as they could and get as far away as they could.”

The couple invited the passengers into their Huntingdon home and offered them something to eat and drink.

Mrs Sears said: “One of the girls had blood on her and she was a bit distressed.

“The dad was very anxious, obviously, he wanted to make sure his children were alright. All he wanted to do was give them a hug.”

The couple, however, were unable to see who was outside in the dark and initially thought it might be a prank.

Once he opened the door, Mr Sears said one of the women was unaware she had blood on her clothes and he cleaned it off for her.

He said another of the women was “so distraught” and did not want to be left alone.

Mrs Sears said: “You just don’t think, you do it without thinking.

“We were just there at the right time they came here and we had to help them… we didn’t do nothing.”