Metal-detector scanners at train stations would “make life impossible” for passengers, the transport secretary has said, adding that a review into security after a mass stabbing on a high-speed train would examine all other options.
A member of train staff who intervened to protect passengers as the service approached Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire remained critically ill in hospital but his condition was now stable, Heidi Alexander said.
She said there was no evidence of a terrorist motivation, adding that she could not be drawn on the possible mental health of the 32-year-old suspect after witnesses to his arrest recounted him talking about the devil. One witness said the suspect had asked the police to kill him.
Alexander said there would be visible patrols of British Transport Police officers at stations for the next few days to reassure passengers, but rejected the idea of security scanners or arches.
“I don’t think airport-style scanners would be the way to go,” the transport secretary told Sky News. “I understand why you asked the question, and I understand why some of your viewers might be wondering about that.
“We have thousands of railway stations across the UK, and those stations have multiple entrances, multiple platforms. What we can’t do is make life impossible for everyone, but we do need to take sensible and proportionate steps to make the public transport network safe.”
A review of train security measures could provide other answers, Alexander said, citing the example of the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attack, in which a van was driven at pedestrians, and after which vehicle blockers were put in place for pavements on several bridges in the capital.
Asked what else could be done, Alexander said however horrific the attack on Saturday, public transport was “generally is a low crime environment”.
She said: “Our trains are some of the most safest forms of public transport anywhere in the world. For every 1 million passenger journeys that are made, there are 27 crimes.”
A 32-year-old British national from Peterborough is being questioned after 10 people were injured on the 6.25pm Peterborough-London service on Saturday.
Speaking to Times Radio, the transport secretary said the arrested man “was not known to counter-terrorism police, he was not known to the security services, and he was not known to the Prevent programme”.
Asked if the suspect was known to mental health services, she said: “I’m not in a position to share any more information about the individual, I’m afraid.”
Speaking later to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Alexander said there was still no sign of a terrorism-related motivation: “For a terrorist incident to be declared, there would need to be evidence of someone pursuing this violence, this activity for a ideological or political aim.”
Asked about the comments reportedly made by the arrested man, and whether this raised questions about other preventive actions that could have been taken, she said: “There are undoubted questions that will need to be answered, and we will answer them, but that will take time.
“I don’t have any medical information that I can share about, for example, the mental health of this suspect, and I’m not going to get drawn on this, to be honest, because I think the issue of mental health and criminal responsibility is a complex one.”
A member of LNER staff was recorded on CCTV attempting to stop the attacker as the train travelled between Peterborough and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, British Transport Police said.
Alexander told Sky that she wanted to praise train staff and emergency workers for their response: “Most of all, I would like to say thank you to the emergency services and the one individual who is still critically ill in hospital, who is stable, I’m pleased to say.
“But he went into work that morning to work on that train service, to serve passengers, and he put himself in harm’s way. There are people who are alive today because of his actions and his bravery.”
