Southport Stabbing: At Least 8 People Injured in Attack in U.K.
Two children were killed and another nine children and two adults were injured in a knife attack at a children’s dance class on Monday morning in Southport, a seaside town near the northern English city of Liverpool, according to the local police.
A 17-year-old male from Banks, a nearby village, was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the stabbings and was being questioned, according to the Merseyside Police, who oversee law enforcement in the region. The teenager was originally from Cardiff, Wales, and the police said they were investigating the motive behind the attack, but added that it was not being treated as related to terrorism.
A number of the injured were taken to Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, according to a statement from the North West Ambulance Service, which responded to the attack.
The stabbings took place just before noon, according to the police, who said they had been called to a property on Hart Street in Southport after receiving reports of a stabbing.
Speaking during a press briefing on Monday evening, Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of the Merseyside Police, confirmed that two girls had died as a result of injuries from the attack and that nine other children had been injured, six of them critically. Two adults were also critically injured.
The children had been attending a Taylor Swift-themed event at a dance school, she added, when the attacker walked into the class and began to attack them.
“We believe that the adults injured were bravely trying to protect the children,” Ms. Kennedy added.
At least one event for children was being held on Hart Street at the time of the attack. A class for children 6 to 11 was taking place on Monday morning at Hart Space, a yoga and community studio in a building set back from the road.
Schools in the area had recently begun their summer break, and the studio was hosting a sold-out, Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop for children on Monday morning, according to a since-deleted post on its Facebook page with a pink and purple advertisement.
Dave Kitchin of North West Ambulance Service said at the evening news briefing that there was “no doubt this incident will have a lasting impact on the whole community.”
Yvette Cooper, Britain’s home secretary, spoke in front of Parliament on Monday afternoon, saying she was “deeply concerned” about the violence and that she had spoken with the local authorities to convey the government’s “full support.”
A number of eyewitnesses told local news outlets that they had seen injured children bleeding on the street.
Colin Parry, the owner of a vehicle repair shop on Hart Street, told Sky News it was “like a scene from a horror movie.”
Bare Varathan, 35, who owns a corner store on the street, told The Telegraph that he had seen a number of bleeding children. He also said he saw armed police officers remove a man from a building.
By Monday evening, large stretches of the typically quiet, largely residential street remained blocked off by blue-and-white police tape. Police vehicles were still at the scene, visible in broadcasts carried by British news networks, and discarded medical gloves and other equipment lay scattered on the street.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had seen the “horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport,” in a post on X. “My thoughts are with all those affected. I would like to thank the police and emergency services for their swift response,” he added.
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