Man remanded over British train murder

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) A 21-year-old man was remanded in jail today over the murder of a student in front of other passengers on a train in Cumbria, north west England.

Thomas Grant, 19, was stabbed to death on a train travelling from Glasgow to Paignton in Devon on Saturday.

Police have said the 21-year-old man, Thomas Lee Wood, was arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing shortly after the attack.

Lee Wood will appear at Carlisle Crown Court on June 7 for a further hearing.

The attack is the latest in a string of high-profile knife crimes in recent weeks.

On Friday a 14-year-old schoolboy in Birmingham was stabbed in the abdomen and last week a promising footballer, 15-year-old Kiyan Prince, was killed when trying to stop a fight outside his school gates in London.

Concern over knife attacks has grown in recent years and earlier this week a knife amnesty began in a bid to rid the streets of thousands of weapons. Statistics show that 6 per cent of all violent crimes nationally are knife-related and out of 820 homicides in 2004/5, 236 involved sharp instruments. In London alone, there were 12,589 knife-related incidents last year.

REUTERS SHB PM1726