A 14-year-old boy stabbed by a man who went on to commit a mass stabbing on a train said he was staring at him with his ‘eyes wide open’ as he screamed ‘Are you involved, are you involved?’, a court heard today.

The teenager was going trick or treating with a friend when Anthony Williams ‘just pulled out a knife and stabbed me’.

The terrified pair ran away and hid in bushes where they remained until police arrived after they made a 999 call.

The incident on a footbridge over the River Nene in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was the first of 14 assaults by Williams during a Halloween weekend rampage that ended with ten attacks on a train.

Cambridge Crown Court has heard that he admits 12 charges of wounding with intent and two of attempted wounding with intent but denies 14 counts of attempted murder.

The boy described in a police interview how he was with his friend on the evening of October 31 last year when ‘some random guy I’d literally never seen in my life just pulls out a knife and stabs me’.

The ten-inch black knife was pulled from Williams’ waistband, he said, adding: ‘He was screaming something. My friend said it was something like “Are you involved, are you involved?” or something.

‘His eyes were wide open, like he was on something. I don’t think he was well.

‘We just ran away. Because I had so much adrenalin I only thought someone had poked me in the chest.

‘We ran into some bushes. My friend was saying “Call the police, call the police”. I was saying I think I’ve been stabbed.’

The boy told the interviewing officer that the force of the blow to his chest was ‘strong – it pushed me back a bit. He was using his full force’.

Williams is accused of the attempted murders of two others in separate incidents near the spot over the next few minutes, Dawid Taborski and William Ogelby.

Mr Taborski said in a video interview that he had been on his way to a rave when a man he had never seen before 'kept saying… "are you involved, are you involved?"'.

He said he 'didn't know what he (Williams) was on about, I was really confused' and he initially thought it may have been 'a Halloween thing'.

'As soon as he took that knife out I ran. It happened so quickly,' he added.

Detective Constable Ryan Burke said he was on high-visibility foot patrols when Mr Taborski approached him by Charters bar and told him 'someone had attempted to stab him but they hadn't been able to do so'.

The officer said in a statement that Mr Taborski told him the man had 'brandished a long silver blade' and 'lunged attempting to stab him'.

Mr Ogelby told police he had been walking to a cashpoint to get money out when a man walking towards him said 'wagwan' to him, which he understood to be a greeting.

'I've said (it) back and he's pulled a knife out and tried to stab me three times in my stomach and once in my chest,' he said in a video interview played to jurors.

He said he ran home 'as fast as my legs would carry me' and 'checked myself to see if I was bleeding – I wasn't bleeding'.

'I thought he was going to kill me,' he said.

Jurors were shown a photo of Mr Ogelby wearing a jacket which had what prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC described as a 'knife cut' to it.

Jurors have been told of the terror – and moments of astonishing bravery – on display the following day as Williams marched through a succession of carriages on a Doncaster to London LNER service using a knife to attack people, leaving some with grievous injuries.

A number of brave passengers and a member of staff tried to stand up to him during the ‘storm of violence’.

Train worker Samir Zitouni attempted to stop him with a 'defensive blockade' of items including a frying pan and a toaster.

He then organised a group of ‘big, strong men’ before waving a pan at him but was subjected to an attack described as 'prolonged, persistent and brutal'.

Footage played in court from when the train eventually stopped showed him staggering down the platform in his blood-soaked shirt before falling against a carriage and down on to the tracks.

His injuries from multiple wounds included partially collapsed lungs and an injured spleen.

Football fan Stephen Crean bravely 'whispered to those in the café bar to shut the door and went towards the defendant' despite being unarmed, the court was told.

Williams – who asked him ‘do you want to die?’ - stabbed him several times in the head, upper and lower back, fingers and hip during the 'one-sided' attack.

Some on board the train spoke of the defendant rambling on about the ‘devil’ and ‘power’ and warning: ‘Everyone’s gonna die today.’

Car delivery driver Raza Aslam described how he heard the defendant had 'the greatest delight on his face, I saw his eyes expand with pleasure'.

The Halloween mayhem began with the stabbing of the 14-year-old boy, who can't be named for legal reasons, on the evening of October 31 last year.

Two men – Dawid Taborski and William Ogelby – were attacked nearby minutes later, although they avoided injury.

A 17-year-old was next stabbed in the face while travelling on the Docklands Light Railway in east London at Pontoon Dock in the early hours of November 1.

Williams then boarded the LNER train in his home town of Peterborough at 7.26pm that evening, clutching a 'large kitchen knife and a bottle of fortified tonic wine' before starting the mass stabbing.

Describing passengers' responses when the attack began, Mr Paxton said: 'In sheer terror, the train passengers ran for their lives, hiding away in locked toilets, store cabinets, or under seats until many fleeing the defendant literally ran out of train.

'Trapped and facing the defendant, who had been wielding, slashing out and stabbing with his knife, some sought to defend themselves and others on the train, showing extraordinary bravery in the face of the defendant's onslaught, picking up frying pans or toasters to keep the defendant back, even trying to de-escalate the situation by asking him why was he doing it and telling him that they loved him.

'But to no avail, the defendant continued his knife attack – slashing out and stabbing those around him.'

Horrifying footage played in court showed dozens of passengers wrapped in coats and hats fleeing down carriages as Williams approached them.

The bloody onslaught ended when the 'quick thinking' train driver hurriedly arranged an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.

The defendant, who is appearing in court via videolink from Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire, was seen in bodycam footage being arrested by armed police who disabled him with a taser.

He was checked at hospital before being taken to a police station in Cambridge, although he was deemed not fit to be interviewed by officers.

While in custody, he punched a PC on the nose – leading to a charge of causing actual bodily harm, which the court heard he has admitted.

Prosecutor Chris Paxton KC told the jury that the defendant has 'some mental health issues which may or may not become relevant during this trial'.

But one train passenger, Michael Paffett, who suffered a deep wound to his face, described how Williams ordered him to stay in a carriage after attacking him, saying: ‘I don’t want you behind me.’

The prosecution say this showed that he was ‘functioning, responding and reactive to those around him’.

Mr Paxton added: 'There is no issue in this case as to who is responsible for these attacks. The defendant accepts he carried out these attacks.

'The issue in this case, so far as the attempted murder counts are concerned, relates primarily to the defendant's intention – whether he had an intention to kill as we, the prosecution, say he had.'

The trial continues.