A man hailed as heroic for his actions during the Huntingdon train attack over the weekend has said he was asked by the suspected knifeman “do you want to die?” during the encounter as he was stabbed six times.

61-year-old Stephen Crean told a range of news outlets on Monday that he tried to stop the attack, using nothing but his bare hands in an attempt to hold back the knifeman to let others escape. A total of 11 people were injured on the train travelling to London on Saturday evening, with a number of people on board the train described as heroes for their actions.

“I’m going to need plastic surgery,” Mr Crean, who suffered many injuries to his hand and head, said. “One finger doesn’t look clever. I’ve had stitches on them all. I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

32-year-old Anthony Williams was charged today with 11 accounts of attempted murder. Police are now investigating whether Mr Williams, a British citizen of Caribbean descent, is linked to three other recent incidents, including the stabbing of a 14-year-old on Friday and two reports of a man seen with a knife in a barber’s shop in Peterborough. 

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer commended a “heroic” driver and staff who were working on board a train when multiple people were stabbed on Saturday night. He said that the “brave action” of those who responded to the attack “saved countless lives” while speaking in the House of Commons on Monday.

Football supporter Mr Crean had been travelling home from watching Nottingham Forest play Manchester United earlier that day when the attack unfolded at around 7.30pm. He described to the Telegraph newspaper how he got up from his seat and approached the attacker with his bare hands as fellow passengers fled the other way.

Mr Crean recalled how the knifeman asked him “do you want to die?” three times when they came face-to-face with each other.

He told the Telegraph:  “It was me with him .He had a great big oversized kitchen knife – it was as if it was a Japanese sword or something. He came towards me and said to me, ‘Do you want to die?’. That’s what he said.”

“All of a sudden the door of the carriage opened, people ran past me and they were shouting, ‘run, run, run, man’s got a knife’,” he recalled. “So I let these people run past me, families, women, young lads.

“Finally they had all packed into the buffet car and the toilets and locked the doors, as you do, and so that was it for me.”

Mr Crean told both the Telegraph and LBC radio that he began moving down the carriage, witnessing other survivors locking themselves in the toilets in an attempt to get away from the attacker. He said that a door to the buffet car, where others were hiding, was locked behind him as he fought the attacker, preventing potentially dozens more injuries.

“I could see somebody on the floor behind him with what looked like blood on them,” he said.

“He got nearer and nearer to me, so I went a little bit further back. He came up, he came up. And by that point I was back at the buffet car but they were making sure that door was locked. I heard it click and that’s when it kicked off.

He told LBC that he eventually came face-to-face with the attacker.

“It was just me against him,” he said, describing how he tried to hold him in his hand as the blade was “going all around.”

“It was right up close, it was like a sword. I mean, it might be exaggerating, but that’s what it felt like,” he added.

Mr Crean, describing the alleged knifeman, said: “He just looked pretty moody, pretty angry. He was on a mission. He knew what he wanted to do and he was going to do it.

“And then, all of a sudden, this knife comes out, and I went straight for him. I tried to punch him, this and that. I was trying to hold his arm [with his knife]. It kicked off. But he caught me on the top of the head.”

The football fan said he was stabbed multiple times – including in his left hand, three times in his back, twice on his head, and once on his bottom, describing losing blood.

“I just tried to hold him off and to keep the knife away but it caught me. He got me a lot on my left hand, three times on my back, once on my bottom and twice on my head. I was bleeding a lot,” he added.

“It all happened so quickly and then he went back the other way, and then he went to the buffet car [where passengers were sheltering] but the door was already locked.

“I think my phone had dropped on the floor, so I picked it up and I went the other way to him,” he said.

He eventually found an empty toilet and locked the door as he lay on the floor and lost blood. He said he was there for around 10 minutes before he opened the door to armed police.

Explaining why he confronted the attacker, he said: “I think there was no other choice. It just didn’t dawn on me not to.

“My motive was to protect people. I think it’s just in my blood. I will always do that. I was scared, but then it went away. You just do whatever. You just go with it.”

Mr Crean, asked by ITV News on Monday evening about his actions, said: “I think there’s much bigger heroes than me. You have the medics, the police, and the people that helped me. There’s other people – the ambulance services, the doctors, the nurses, all that, and the guys who came and got me off the train, and the police. A different class.”

Many people online have backed calls for Mr Crean to be given a knighthood for his actions, while a fundraising campaign has raised £22,000 – far in excess of its target of £500.

Eight people remain in hospital, including a railway worker who tried to stop the suspect. While Mr Crean was discharged from hospital in Cambridge at 6am on Sunday, the railway worker remains in a “critical but stable” condition according to the transport secretary.