Passenger begged alleged attacker 'please don't' during train stabbings

A woman pleaded with the alleged Huntingdon train attacker, telling him "please don't" as he lunged at her with a knife.

Dayna Arnold, 48, from Bridlington said she was lying on the carriage floor when the man stopped his attack after her words.

He walked away down the train she said, before returning to her and saying "the devil's not going to win".

Ms Arnold had got on the train with her partner Andy Gray at Peterborough on Saturday evening and had just sat down when she "heard a lot of commotion towards the front of our carriage".

"We both peered up over the seats in front of us and we just saw a bunch of people getting out of their seats and then a lot of panicked voices and they were heading our way."

She said her partner was swept along by the fleeing crowd, but she was stuck in her seat when her bag caught on the table.

After freeing herself she made her way down the carriage only to be knocked into a seat by panicking passengers.

In her first broadcast interview, she told BBC Look North she saw the alleged attacker approaching.

"So I just decided to slide down to the floor and then moments later he was above me," she said.

She added: "He was right over me and he had the knife and he was lunging it at me, but I just put my arm up like this and just said, 'please don't'.

"There was just something that shifted in his face and his eyes and he took the knife down."

Ms Arnold said the man returned a few moments later "he just looked right at me and he said, 'the devil's not going to win'."

She said that her partner helped one of the injured passengers by using his belt as a tourniquet.

The couple have had trouble sleeping in the aftermath of the incident.

"I am feeling very lucky and blessed that Andy and I are OK and hope that everyone injured and affected by this very scary ordeal has a speedy recovery," she said.

Eleven people were injured in the incident on Saturday evening on a Doncaster to London LNER train in Cambridgeshire.

Anthony Williams, 32, of no fixed abode, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and remanded into custody.

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