There is no indication that Saturday's knife attack on a train in eastern England was an act of terrorism, British police said at a news conference on Sunday. Two of the injured remain in critical condition, they said. After the attack, the agency said 10 people were injured, nine of them with life-threatening injuries.

Police have named a 32-year-old black British man and a 35-year-old British man of Caribbean origin as the suspects, the Daily Mail reports. Both were born in Britain and are now in custody. It is inappropriate to speculate at this time about a motive for the attack, according to police. King Charles III said he was"absolutely appalled and shocked" by the attack.

Around 30 police officers responded shortly after 8:30 p.m. CET to Huntingdon station, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of London, where a train from Doncaster to the British capital was brought to an emergency stop. Two people were taken into custody.

"We are carrying out urgent investigations to establish what happened and it may take some time before we are able to confirm anything further," police Superintendent Chris Casey was quoted as saying by the media. Police have described the attack as an extraordinary incident, with the counter-terrorism police service also involved in the investigation, in addition to the transport police, which is responsible for security on trains.

The heroic act of an elderly man

Witnesses told The Times that they saw a man with a long knife on the train and that passengers were hiding in the toilets. According to one witness, there was “blood everywhere” and passengers were trampling on others in an attempt to escape. Another witness told the BBC that he initially thought it was a Halloween prank when he heard others shouting that there was a man with a knife on the train and attacking. Another witness told Sky News that he saw police officers using a Taser to subdue the man with the long knife.

The attack on the train was a heroic act by one of the passengers, according to witnesses. The elderly man threw himself in front of the attacker as he tried to stab the young girl, and suffered a serious neck injury himself, passenger Olly Foster told the BBC.

“I was in the H car, listening to an audiobook, when a man ran past me and started yelling, ‘Run, run, there’s a man stabbing everyone,’” Foster said. At first, he said, the passengers thought it was a Halloween prank, but the tension quickly turned to panic.

"Everyone looked at each other and thought it was a joke since it's Halloween, but then you see on everyone else's faces that it's serious. I got up and started running," he said.

"I was leaning against the seat and I realized my hand was covered in blood. I looked at the seat and it was covered in blood," he added.

Foster also described the heroism of an elderly passenger who, regardless of his own safety, stood between the attacker and the young girl."The attacker tried to stab her. One of the older men, an absolute hero, defended her. She now has a wound to her head and a wound to her neck," the witness said.

CZ Police: Aggressive man with a knife attacked police officers

According to him, other passengers tried to stop the bleeding with jackets.

The condition of the injured man is not yet known.

The passengers were stabbed as the train, which had left Doncaster in northern England and was heading for London, was about halfway through its two-hour journey and approaching Huntingdon, a few miles northwest of Cambridge.

The London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said some of its services were likely to be restored only on Monday, The Guardian reported.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Saturday's incident"appalling and extremely disturbing." King Charles III and his wife Camilla expressed their dismay and shock on Sunday, according to AFP.

"Our deepest sympathies and thoughts go out to all those affected and their loved ones. We are extremely grateful to the emergency services for their response to this terrible incident," the royal couple said in a statement.

According to official figures, the number of knife attacks in Britain has been increasing since 2011, and Starmer says it is a"national crisis." As part of London's efforts to halve the number of such crimes over a decade, almost 60,000 knives have been"seized or surrendered" in England and Wales, the Home Office said on Wednesday.