UK police charge man with attempted murder over train stabbing that wounded 11 people

LONDON (AP) — U.K. police on Monday charged a 32-year-old man with attempted murder over a mass stabbing attack on a train that wounded 11 people, and revealed that he may have stabbed two other people in the 24 hours before the attack.

British Transport Police said Anthony Williams is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one of actual bodily harm and one of possession of a bladed article over the attack on Saturday.

He is also charged with attempted murder over an earlier incident at Pontoon Dock light rail station in London just before 1 a.m. on Saturday, in which a victim “suffered facial injuries after being attacked with a knife” by an assailant who fled the scene.

Another police force, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said it is investigating whether Williams was involved in three incidents in the city of Peterborough — a Friday evening stabbing in which a 14-year-old boy received minor injuries and two reports of a man with a knife at a barber shop on Friday evening and Saturday morning. In all three cases, the suspect quickly left the scene and police did not detain anyone.

Police say they are not treating the train stabbings as an act of terror and are not looking for other suspects. A second man initially arrested as a suspect was released without charge on Sunday.

Williams, a British citizen living in Peterborough, made a brief appearance at Peterborough Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Flanked by four security officers as he stood in the dock wearing a gray prison tracksuit and handcuffs, was ordered detained until his next hearing on Dec. 1. He was not asked to enter pleas.

The charge of actual bodily harm is for allegedly hitting a police officer and breaking his nose after Williams' arrest.

The minutes-long stabbing attack spree spread fear and panic through a train bound from Doncaster in northern England to London on Saturday evening. The train was about halfway through its journey and had just departed from a stop at Peterborough when police began receiving calls about people being stabbed onboard.

Passengers described scenes of panic as bloodied travelers raced down the train to get away from the knifeman. Stephen Crean, 61, said he was slashed across his hands, head, back and arms as he tussled with the attacker.

“He asked me, ‘Do you want to die?’" Crean said. “He repeated it. Then I remember his knife going into my arm.”

Eleven people were treated in hospital. The most seriously wounded victim is a member of train staff who tried to stop the attacker and suffered “grievous injuries,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said. He is hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

“On Saturday he went to work to do his job. Today he is a hero and forever will be," Mahmood told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Andrew Johnson, the train driver, was hailed by police as a hero for his quick action to divert the train to another track so it could stop at the nearest available station for help.

Johnson, in a statement issued by London North Eastern Railway, deflected the praise and said his colleagues aboard the train, including the seriously injured, were the brave ones.

Four other victims remained in a hospital on Monday, including Jonathan Gjoshe, a player with soccer team Scunthorpe United. The team said he has “non-life threatening injuries.”

Williams was arrested when the train made an emergency stop in the town of Huntingdon, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of London. Police say he was detained within eight minutes of officers receiving the first emergency calls.

Authorities said the attack was an isolated incident but stepped up security on the railway, with armed police officers on patrol Monday at major train stations.

The government rejected calls for increased security measures such as airport-style passenger and baggage screening to be introduced at Britain's 3,500 railway stations, saying that wouldn't be “proportionate or practical.”

In the U.K, which has strict gun-control laws, almost half of all homicides involve a knife or sharp instrument. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's center-left government has pledged to reduce knife crime and has tightened rules for purchasing knives and banned some kinds of blades.

It claims to have had some success, with the total number of knife crimes down 5% and knife killings falling 18% in the year to June 2025 from the previous 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Police officers patrol King's Cross train station, in London, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Armed police officers patrol the St Pancras International train station, in London, England, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Police officers patrol King's Cross train station, in London, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Armed police officers go on patrol at St Pancras International train station in London, England, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

A forensic investigator enters the train after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A train is stopped at a railway station after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Forensic investigators look at the area where travellers left their belongings after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Forensic investigators are seen at the train after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train in Huntingdon, England, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A state appeals court is being asked to dismiss felony voter misconduct charges against an Alaska resident born in American Samoa, one of numerous cases that have drawn attention to the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory.

In arguments Thursday, attorneys for Tupe Smith plan to ask the Alaska Court of Appeals in Anchorage to reverse a lower court's decision that let stand the indictment brought against her. Her supporters say she made an innocent mistake that does not merit charges, but the state contends Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship.

Prosecutors also have brought charges against 10 other people from American Samoa in the small Alaska community of Whittier, including Smith’s husband and her mother-in-law. American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered U.S. nationals. Paths to citizenship exist, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.

American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections.

About 25 people gathered on a snowy street outside the courthouse before Thursday's hearing to support Smith. One woman, Fran Seager of Palmer, held a sign that said, “Support our Samoans. They are US nationals.”

Smith's husband, Michael Pese, thanked the American Samoa community in the Anchorage area. “If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be strong enough to face this head on,” he said.

State Sen. Forrest Dunbar, a Democrat who attended the rally, said the Alaska Department of Law has limited resources.

“We should be going after people who are genuine criminals, who are violent criminals, or at least have the intent to deceive,” he said. “I do not think it is a good use of our limited state resources to go after these hardworking, taxpaying Alaskans who are not criminals.”

Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. She said she relied on erroneous information from local election officials when she identified herself as a U.S. citizen on voter registration forms.

In a court filing in 2024, one of her previous attorneys said that when Smith answered questions from the Alaska state trooper who arrested her, she said she was aware that she could not vote in presidential elections but was “unaware of any other restrictions on her ability to vote.”

Smith said she marks herself as a U.S. national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark U.S. citizen, according to the filing.

Smith “exercised what she believed was her right to vote in a local election. She did so without any intent to mislead or deceive anyone,” her current attorneys said in a filing in September. “Her belief that U.S. nationals may vote in local elections, which was supported by advice from City of Whittier election officials, was simply mistaken.”

The state has said Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship. Prosecutors pointed to the language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022, which explicitly said that if the applicant was not at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, “do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.”

The counts Smith was indicted on “did not have anything to do with her belief in her ability to vote in certain elections; rather they concerned the straightforward question of whether or not Smith intentionally and falsely swore she was a United States citizen,” Kayla Doyle, an assistant attorney general, said in court filings last year.

One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, said by email last week that if the appeals court lets stand the indictment, Alaska will be “the only state to our knowledge with such a low bar for felony voter fraud.”

Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.

Michael Pese and his wife, Tupe Smith, stand outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Michael Pese, left, his wife, Tupe Smith, and their son Maximus pose for a photo outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

FILE - Tupe Smith poses for a photo outside the school in Whittier, Alaska, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)