Two children killed and eleven people injured in stabbing, British police say

A teenager attacked a children’s dance and yoga class with a knife in northwest England on Monday. Two children were killed and 11 others injured in the “brutal” rampage, after which the bloodied children ran into the street to escape the horror, police and witnesses said.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with the attack in Southport, a coastal town near Liverpool, Merseyside Police said. The motive was unclear, but police said investigators were not treating the attack as terrorist-related.

Nine children were injured, six of them in critical condition. Two injured adults who tried to protect them are also in critical condition, police said.

“We believe the injured adults were bravely trying to protect the children who were attacked,” said Police Chief Serena Kennedy.

The workshop on the topic of Taylor Swift took place in the first week of the school holidays for children aged 6 to 11. An advertisement for the two-hour course promised yoga, dancing and bracelet making.

Witnesses reported hearing bloodcurdling screams and seeing children covered in blood.

“They were on the street, running out of the nursery,” said Bare Varathan, who owns a shop nearby. “They were covered in stab wounds, here, here, here, everywhere,” pointing to the neck, back and chest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the attack as “appalling and deeply shocking”.

Merseyside Police said officers were called to an address in Southport, a coastal town of about 100,000 people near Liverpool, around midday. It described it as a “serious incident” but said there was no major danger to the public.

“When they arrived, they were horrified to discover that several people, including many children, had been the victims of a brutal attack and had suffered serious injuries,” Kennedy said.

Colin Parry, owner of a car repair shop, said most of the victims of the stabbing appeared to be young girls.

“The mothers come here now and scream,” Parry said. “It’s like a scene from a horror movie. … It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”

The suspect, whose identity has not yet been established, lived in a village about 8 kilometers from the crime scene, police said. He was originally from Cardiff in Wales.

Ryan Carney, who lives with his mother on the street, said his mother saw emergency workers carrying children “who were red and covered in blood. She said she could see the stab wounds on the children’s backs.”

“None of these things ever happen here,” he said. “You hear about them, stabbings and things like that in big cities, in Manchester, in London. This is sunny Southport. That’s what people call it. The sun is shining. It’s a beautiful place.”

The worst attack on children in Britain occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 kindergarten children and their teacher in a school gym in Dunblane, Scotland. In the following years, the private ownership of almost all handguns was banned in Britain.

Mass shootings and murders involving firearms are rare in the UK, with knives used in around 40% of murders in the years to March 2023. Several high-profile attacks and a recent rise in knife crime have stoked fears and led to calls for the government to do more against bladed weapons.