A victim of the mass stabbing on a busy train in Huntingdon on Saturday said he "didn't have much choice" but to fight back, recalling defending himself with only his fists.
Stephen Crean, 61, said that he was returning home on the train from Doncaster to London when a young woman ran through his train carriage yelling: "Knife, knife, there's a man with a big knife".
"There was nowhere to go. I didn't have much choice,” he said, adding that the knifeman asked if he wanted to die before he felt the knife in his arm.
"He repeated it. Then I remember his knife going into my arm,” he said. Mr Crean said the knife caught him several times as he confronted the attacker on the train.
“Probably not many people would've done it,” he reflected on his decision to fight back. “But then you're leaving people behind you vulnerable."
Having been described as a hero, he said: "It's lovely that people are saying nice things about me."
Eleven people received treatment in hospital following the attack on Saturday night.
Suspect Anthony Williams, 32, has appeared in court charged with 11 counts of attempted murder, following the knife attack and a separate incident on the DLR in London earlier on Saturday.
Ten of the counts of attempted murder were linked to the train attack, British Transport Police said, while the eleventh was linked to the incident in London.
Williams was also charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of possession of a bladed article.
A train worker, praised for protecting passengers, remains in a “critical but stable” condition after the attack in Cambridgeshire.
Scunthorpe United said their player, Jonathan Gjoshe, was one of the victims of the attack, adding that he sustained “non-life-threatening injuries” but remains in hospital.
Mr Crean, speaking from his home in southwest London while wearing a cast over one hand, said he “got caught on my fingers”.
The attacker “took a swing at this, and a swing at that”, he said. “I got caught on the head," he said.
"I was lucky. I got caught on the back a few times. They caught me a few times. The front of me, and my other arm. In the face and everything."
He added: "I'm going to need plastic surgery. One finger doesn't look clever. I've had stitches on them all. I don't know how long it's going to take."
Mr Crean told the PA news agency he had no opportunity to get away to a place of safety when the man approached with a "sword-type thing" but he was able to get into a train toilet after the confrontation.
Of his decision to fight back, he said: "Probably not many people would've done it, but then you're leaving people behind you vulnerable."
