AI-generated image of UK train attacker's arrest circulates online
- Published on November 13, 2025 at 10:06
- 2 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
A man was detained by police onboard a London-bound train after stabbing nearly a dozen people on November 1, but an image shared alongside Indonesian news reports -- one of which credits it to news agencies AFP and Reuters -- is actually AI-generated. The person who first posted the image said it was created using Perplexity's AI tool, while both AFP and Reuters said it was not produced or distributed by the agencies in relation to the stabbing.
"Police investigate the motive behind mass stabbing on British train," reads the Indonesian language-headline of a report by a website called MataNusantara on November 3, 2025.
The article includes an image showing a scene on board a train carriage with medical personnel tending to an injured person while two police officers surround a handcuffed man in the background.
The Indonesian-language caption credits the image to AFP and Reuters.
Anthony Williams, 32, was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder following a mass stabbing on a London-bound train on November 1. Ten people were injured in the incident, with a critically wounded train worker hailed as a hero for stepping in to protect passengers (archived link).
Witnesses on board the train departing from the northeastern town of Doncaster described scenes of chaos and horror as an attacker with a large knife stabbed passengers on board (archived link).
The train stopped at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, where armed police at first detained two men, though one was let go after officers established he was not involved in the attack.
The same image was shared alongside reports of the stabbing by other Indonesian news sites here and here.
But the image was made with AI, while both AFP and Reuters said it was not published by the agencies in relation to the stabbing.
A reverse image search on Google found the image was published in a November 2 X post about the stabbing on the train (archived link).
In a subsequent comment, the user said the image was created using US-based startup Perplexity's AI tool (archived here).
The photo in question was not taken, produced, reproduced or distributed by AFP in relationship with the stabbing.
Reuters told AFP on November 12 it conducted a thorough search on its system and confirmed the image "was not taken, produced, or distributed by Reuters".
The image also features visual inconsistencies such as distorted text on the back of the first responders' uniforms, while the handcuffed man's hands appear oddly merged together.
The stabbing took place on an Azuma train owned by the London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which has seats with dark red headrests, not blue as seen in the AI-generated image (archived link).
AFP has frequently debunked AI-generated visuals passed off as depictions of news events here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
