Passengers on train disarm knifeman after attack
PASSENGERS on a packed train wrestled a machete-wielding man to the ground after he threatened to ‘slice’ people up.
Heroic passengers bravely jumped into action after the man pulled out a 10in machete on a Newcastle to Darlington train in April.
Aleksander Maksym, 25, of Grange Road in Ipswich, has been jailed for 12 months over the incident, which saw him attack a fellow passenger.
Maksym was sitting in coach E when he got up from his seat and began to threaten a group of passengers seated nearby.
He targeted a man within the group and began to physically attack him.
Two fellow passengers, a man and a woman, then jumped into action and grabbed Maksym, pulling him off the man and restraining him.
When he continued to be aggressive and fought to get back to the man he had attacked, the passengers, who had now been joined by two others, formed a human barrier across the carriage to stop him.
Maksym then grabbed his rucksack and pulled out a 10in machete while shouting “I’m gonna slice them up”.
Two of the passengers bravely managed to distract him, while one grabbed his arm and restrained him, allowing the other to grab the machete.
The train stopped at Darlington and the police were called and the train driver came into the carriage and helped physically restrain the man until officers arrived and arrested him.
Maksym, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £140. Inspector Richard Price, of the British Transport Police, said: “The passengers and train driver showed unbelievable bravery in what must have been a petrifying and frightening incident. “I would like to thank and commend them for their amazing quick thinking actions and fantastic team work which ensured the safety of everyone on the train. “The service was really busy with a number of large groups of youths returning from a music concert, a number of which understandably fled the carriage in fear when the incident unfolded. “The whole incident must have been an extremely terrifying experience for everyone involved and everyone who witnessed it, and I am glad Maksym is now behind bars where he belongs.”