A passenger aboard a London-bound train where a mass stabbing occurred said he initially believed the attacker might be a suicide bomber, Cambridge Crown Court heard during testimony on Monday.
Milan Campion was travelling on an LNER service on 1 November 2025 when the train made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon during an assault by Anthony Williams, 33, of Peterborough. According to BBC News, Campion told jurors that Williams was "threatening everyone indiscriminately" and he "came to the conclusion that he wasn't sound of mind".
Williams denies 10 counts of attempted murder on the train. He faces four additional attempted murder charges stemming from earlier incidents in Peterborough and London.
In a video interview shown to jurors, Campion explained he had boarded the train at Grantham after attending the Nottingham Forest versus Manchester United football match. He described opening a toilet door to find Williams inside, sitting on the toilet and staring at the ground without having locked the door.
When Campion heard other passengers shouting "there's a guy with a knife", he witnessed a chain of people running down the aisle.
"I thought it was a bomb at first," he said. "I thought it might have been a suicide bomber so I need to get as far away as possible to maximise your chance of survival if it goes off."
Campion characterised Williams as "remonstrating with no-one in particular" and shouting something he could not make out.
"He just looked angry, you could see the anger in his eyes,"the witness said.
According to BBC News, Campion later spoke to Williams in the train's catering area, asking, "you can't win – what you trying to do?" This exchange provided jurors with additional insight into the defendant's demeanour during the attack.
What did other witnesses observe?
Witness Dinaria Soares, who was seated across from footballer Jonathan Gjoshe—identified as the first person attacked by Williams—described seeing the knifeman "hit him on the shoulder". She said she was "surprised and confused at first", then saw a knife as the attacker pulled his arm back, observing a "stabbing motion had a lot of force behind it".
Soares reported going to the front of the train where passengers were "trapped like sardines as there was nowhere else to move".
Malani Ranawake, who was travelling in carriage J where the attack began, told jurors she witnessed Williams stabbing a man.
"I'm not going to leave anyone,"she said Williams stated. Ranawake, who later hid in a toilet, said the defendant looked at her but "didn't look cross or angry".
What is the prosecution's case?
Prosecutors allege that on 31 October 2025, Williams attempted to kill three people in Peterborough. He is also charged with attempting to murder a teenager in the early hours of 1 November on a DLR train in east London. The day before the Huntingdon attack, BBC News reported that passengers on another train observed Williams pacing, playing Halloween music and saying, "I am the baddest, no-one is as bad as me."
During the prosecution opening, jurors were told Williams "has some mental health issues which may or may not become relevant during this trial". The court has been informed that whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in dispute; jurors must determine whether he intended to kill.
What happens next in the trial?
The trial continues at Cambridge Crown Court. Jurors will hear further evidence as the case proceeds, with the central question remaining whether Williams possessed the necessary intent to commit murder in each instance.
