Train worker tried to hit knife from attacker’s hand with frying pan, court told

Samir Zitouni, who was working in a kitchen area on the London-bound LNER service that was stopped at Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on November 1 last year, said “my thinking was try to hit the knife, to drop his knife”.

In a video-recorded police interview played at Cambridge Crown Court, Mr Zitouni, who was stabbed during the incident, said he was “in the kitchen doing my job” when the door to the galley opened and there was a crowd of people.

“They were terrified and shouting ‘there’s a guy with a knife’,” he said.

“It was difficult to believe. I remember telling them ‘a guy with a knife, are you sure?’.”

He said he recalled “thinking I can’t go without anything – I was thinking about the frying pan”, and he grabbed it.

He said when the knifeman – Anthony Williams – arrived, “the first thing I saw was the blade”.

Mr Zitouni said he “tried to hit the knife” but he was stabbed, and he said he did not remember parts of the incident, referring to “my blackout”.

He said he “was terrorised” and “it was hard to believe… my thinking was try to hit the knife, to drop his knife”.

He tried to defend “first myself as I was next to him and not to let him pass until the train stopped”.

Mr Zitouni said: “I didn’t want to give up until the train stopped.”

The witness, whose left arm was in a sling in the interview on December 16, said he had scars on his chest from the knife and that his diaphragm and spleen were injured.

He said he had told a colleague on the train “I think I’m going to die”.

Mr Zitouni sat in the public gallery of the court as his video interview was played to jurors on Friday.

Williams denies attempting to murder Mr Zitouni and nine passengers on the LNER train.

He also denies the attempted murders of three people in Peterborough on October 31 and of a 17-year-old boy at Pontoon Dock DLR station in London in the early hours of November 1.

Judge Mr Justice Calver earlier told jurors at Cambridge Crown Court that whether Williams carried out the attacks is not in question, but they must consider whether he intended to kill.

Train passenger Michael Gawthorpe, who witnessed what happened and was not stabbed by Williams, said in a video interview that “someone passed (me) a fairly large toaster”.

He said: “I was holding it not really knowing what to do with it.

“I think instinctively my brain said throw it, so I threw it and it hit him (Williams), I’m pretty sure it hit him.

“I remember him looking at me and thinking ‘that’s pretty much it for me’ at that point.

“I think the train then started to slow down. That may have distracted him.”

He said a man he described as the “train guard” appeared to be “stabbed multiple times” by Williams, with the injured man stumbling back and moving behind him and another man.

“I don’t remember ever really looking backwards from this point on, I was fully focused on him (Williams) and what he was doing,” Mr Gawthorpe said.

He said there was a man who “just seemed to freeze stood next to him (Williams)” and the knifeman “slashed the guy’s face”.

Mr Gawthorpe said: “We shouted at him to run away.”

He said he could not remember when, but at some point a woman threw a drink at Williams.

He said Williams was shouting “they’re trying to kill me” or “something along those lines”.

“We were just shouting ‘calm down, calm down, put the knife down, put the knife down, we’ve got kids’,” he said.

He said earlier “people were putting things forward to barricade” the aisle, such as a catering trolley.

The trial continues.