Huntingdon train attack follows a series of knife incidents in the UK

The Huntingdon train attack is the latest in a number of high-profile multiple stabbings in the UK, but recent statistics have shown knife crime figures are down with homicides at an historic low.

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Just this month, Wayne Broadhurst 49, was stabbed to death as he was walking his dog in Midhurst Gardens in Uxbridge, west London.

Safi Dawood, 22, has been charged with murdering Wayne Broadhurst, as well as attempting to murder his landlord Shahzad Farrukh, 45, and a 14-year-old boy.

And on October 2, 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie was shot dead after he launched a knife attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, while wearing what appeared to be a suicide belt.

Worshippers Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed in the incident, which happened at about 9.30am.

These cases follow the murders of three young girls in Southport, Merseyside, in July 2024.

Axel Rudakubana, who was aged 17, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injured 10 others in the attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

And in June 2023, 32-year-old Valdo Calocane fatally stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they walked home from a night out in Nottingham before he killed 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates and attempted to kill three others.

But latest crime figures for England and Wales, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), have shown that in general, knife offences have been falling and homicides are at a historic low.

Some 51,527 knife crime offences were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the 12 months to June.

This was down year on year by 5 per cent from 54,215 and is 7 per cent below the pre-pandemic figure of 55,170 offences in 2019/20.

Knife-enabled homicides stood at 196 in the year to June, down 18 per cent from 239 in the previous 12 months.

However, the number of offences classed as knife-enabled threats to kill has risen by 7 per cent year on year from 5,719 to 6,126.

Both of these figures are higher than before the pandemic (4,935 in 2019/20).

And the number of offences classed as “possession of an article with a blade or point” stood at 28,499, up 3 per cent year on year from 27,760 – and higher than the pre-pandemic figure of 23,265 in 2019/20.

Police forces in England and Wales also recorded 518 homicides in the year to June, down 6 per cent from 552 in the previous year – making it the lowest figure since current police recording practices began in 2002/03.

Knives or sharp instruments were used in 38 per cent of homicides, down year on year from 43 per cent.

The homicide rate stood at 8.4 per million people in the year to June, down from 9.2 in the previous 12 months.

This is the lowest rate since the 1970s, according to the Home Office.

Other recent high profile knife attacks include the fatal stabbing of 70-year-old Terence Carney, in Hartlepool town centre in October 2023 by 45-year-old Ahmed Ali in “revenge” for Israel declaring war on Hamas.

And in June 20, 2020, failed Libyan asylum seeker Khairi Saadallah shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20 2020, in Forbury Gardens, Reading, Berkshire.

On February 2, 2020, Sudesh Amman stabbed two people non-fatally in Streatham while also wearing a fake suicide vest, and was shot dead by police.

On November 29, 2019, Usman Khan fatally stabbed Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, at a prisoner rehabilitation event at Fishmongers Hall in the City of London.

On June 3, 2017, a white van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men got out of the vehicle and began stabbing people in nearby Borough Market.

Eight people were killed and 48 injured in the rampage by Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba, who were all shot dead by police minutes later.

On March 22 2017, Kent-born Khalid Masood mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near the Houses of Parliament, before fatally stabbing Pc Keith Palmer in the grounds of the Palace of Westminster.

Masood’s rampage came to an end when he was shot by an armed police officer in the grounds of Parliament.

US tourist Kurt Cochran, Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea and Britons Aysha Frade and Leslie Rhodes were also killed in the atrocity.

On May 22 2013, off-duty soldier Lee Rigby, 25, died as a result of multiple cut and stab wounds after being attacked by extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south-east London.