'Her screams will haunt me forever'

A man standing immediately behind a woman who was murdered in front of hundreds of horrified Underground commuters has given a terrifying eyewitness account of what happened.

Henry Jackson, 39, admitted he was paralysed with shock as 24-year-old Margarite van Campenhout was stabbed through the heart at Euston station and left for dead in a pool of blood.

Returning to the station last night for the first time since the killing during Friday's rush hour, Mr Jackson, from Mill Hill, said: "It was awful, and so surreal that I could not believe it was happening just in front of me. The girl's screams will haunt me forever."

Mr Jackson, who works for Camden council, was waiting for a Northern line train to take him home when he became aware that something was "not quite right" with the three people standing in front of him. He said: "The woman was with another man on the platform when someone started talking to her. She did not appear to want to listen but the man persisted.

"I took no further notice until the girl suddenly let out a piercing scream. I turned around and saw she had been stabbed. She had brown hair and was wearing a burgundy coloured coat but all I can really remember is seeing all this blood. It all happened in slow motion, like a bad dream. The man who was with her seemed to freeze and then tried to lunge at the attacker to stop him but he fell over flat on his face. He got up and the knifeman stabbed him in the arm. I watched in horror as the girl lay screaming, I think I panicked.

"Everyone just froze and I must admit I did not know what to do. My first instinct was to get the hell out of there. I remember wondering why help was so long in coming, but then the train doors opened and an announcement was made that we should get on the train. Then they told us to evacuate the station.

"I looked for the girl but she was gone; someone must have taken her away. But the man who was stabbed was still lying there, the blood had drained from his face and I thought he was nearly dead too. Someone was reaching over him, saying, 'Come on mate, hang in there.'"

A 29-year-old man, who has not been named, but who is thought to be an Albanian national, ran up an escalator after the attack to the booking hall where he slashed his own throat and stabbed himself. He is in a serious but stable condition in an unnamed London hospital where he is being kept under "suicide watch". Last night he had sufficiently recovered to be formally arrested by police.

Miss van Campenhout's 22-year-old male companion is recovering after being stabbed in the arm when he tried to stop the attack. A second man, who also tried to intervene, understood to be 26-year-old Thomas Pontifex of Beckenham, Kent, was knifed in the armpit but was less seriously injured.

Ms van Campenhout was from Rotterdam but had been living in Tooting after arriving in Britain two months ago. Her parents flew into London on Sunday to formally identify her body.

Any witnesses who have not yet spoken with police are asked to call the incident room on 020 7486 2583 or 8387.