LONDON (AP) — The identities of three girls killed in a stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class in northwest England were released Tuesday, and police were questioning a 17-year-old suspect arrested in the attack that also injured 10 people.
Police said Alice DaSilva Aguiar, 9, died early Tuesday from her injuries, while Elsie Dot Stancomb, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died Monday.
“Keep smiling and dancing like our princess,” Aguiar’s parents said in a statement released by police. “As we’ve said before, you will always be our princess and no one can change that.”
Ms King’s family said words could not express their grief at losing “our little girl Bebe”.
Eight children and two adults remain in hospital following the attack in Southport. Two adults and five children are in a critical condition.
Swift said on Instagram that she was “completely shocked” and still felt “horrified” by the incident.
“These were little kids who went to dance class,” she wrote. “I have no idea how to express my sympathy to these families.”
In the seaside resort town near Liverpool, whose beaches and piers attract holidaymakers from across the northwest of England, police manned streets lined with brick houses and people left flowers and stuffed toys in tributes.
Witnesses described the blood-covered children fleeing the attack just before noon on Monday as “like something from a horror movie.” A teenage suspect was arrested shortly thereafter on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said the suspect was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived in the village, about three miles (5 kilometers) from Southport, for many years. The suspect has not yet been charged.
Police said detectives are not treating Monday’s attack as terrorism-related and are not searching for other suspects.
People posted messages of support online for one of the people attacked, teacher Leanne Lucas, who organised the event.
“We believe the injured adults were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked,” said Sergeant Serena Kennedy, of Merseyside Police.
A group of Swift’s British fans calling themselves “Swifties for Southport” started an online fundraising campaign to help the victim’s family, raising more than £100,000 ($128,000) within 24 hours.
This riot, Recent increase in knife crime The case has sparked fears and led to calls for the government to do more to crack down on knives, by far the most common weapon used in murders in Britain.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer He drew some ridicule after visiting the scene, laying a pink and white wreath and writing a handwritten note that read, “Our hearts are broken. Words cannot express the depth of loss. The thoughts of the nation are with you.”
“How many more kids do you have?” one person shouted as Sturmer got into his car. “Our kids are dead and you’re leaving now?”
Starmer earlier told reporters he was determined to “curb” the rise in knife crime but said today was not the day for politics.
The Prime Minister met and thanked police, fire and emergency services workers who witnessed the disaster, saying he was “incredibly proud” of their work and amazed they were back at work.
“Kids are alive today because of what you did yesterday,” he said. “That’s incredible.”
Witnesses said they heard screams and saw bloody children coming out of Heart Space, a community centre which hosts everything from pregnancy workshops and meditation sessions to women’s boot camps.
The Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop was a summer holiday activity for kids around 6-11 years old.
“They had fled the nursery and were on the road,” said Bale Balasan, who runs a shop nearby. “They had been stabbed here, here, here, everywhere,” he said, pointing to their necks, backs and chests.
Richard Towns, a children’s entertainer from Southport, said parents in the text message group now felt uneasy about sending their children to summer programs.
“I have a 5-year-old daughter and I know she could have attended the classes just like I did,” Towns said. “I feel helpless and like there’s nothing I can do.”
Colin Parry, who runs a nearby car repair shop, told the Guardian that the suspect had arrived by taxi.
“He came down our driveway in a taxi and didn’t pay for it so I confronted him at that point,” Parry said. “He was pretty aggressive and said, ‘What are you going to do?'”
Parry said most of the victims appeared to be young girls.
“It looks like a scene from a horror movie. It seems more like America than sunny Southport,” he said.
Britain’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 kindergarten children and a teacher in a school gym in Dunblane, Scotland. Private property was prohibited Almost every handgun.
Mass shootings and murders involving guns are extremely rare in the UK, with knives used in around 40% of murders in the year to March 2023.
Mass stabbings are also very rare, according to Ian Overton, executive director of the Armed Violence Agency.
“Most knife attacks are domestic violence or gang-related and personal, one-on-one, which is why this tragedy is so unusual and therefore has attracted so much media attention,” Overton said. “Of course, this is no comfort to the grieving family.”
Several attacks in recent years have sparked outrage and attracted a great deal of attention.
— A man with a sword in London in April Killed a 14 year old boy Four people, including two police officers, were seriously injured on the way to the school.
— In June 2022, a man with paranoid schizophrenia died in Nottingham, central England. Two university students stabbed to death On his way home from celebrating the end of the school year, he killed a 65-year-old man, stole his van and hit three pedestrians.
— A Libyan whose asylum claim was rejected, in Reading, west London, in June 2020. Stabbed three men to death Three more were injured.
