Bloodied children flee knife attack in England – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Two children were killed and nine others injured in a knife attack during a children’s dance class in northwest England on Monday, police said. A 17-year-old boy was arrested and a knife was seized after the bloody attack, police said.

A witness described seeing bloodied children running from a community center where a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event was taking place for children ages 6 to 11. An advertisement for the event promised “a morning of Taylor Swift-themed yoga, dance and bracelet making.”

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.

Investigators did not classify the attack as terrorist, police said.

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

The North West Ambulance Service said paramedics treated eight people for stab wounds. The injured were taken to local hospitals, including a children’s hospital.

Bare Varathan, who owns a shop down the street, said he saw between seven and 10 bleeding children running out of Hart Space, a community center that offers classes for expectant mothers, babies and children.

“They had been stabbed here, here, here, everywhere,” he said, pointing to the neck, back and chest. “They were all about ten years old. One of them was really badly injured.”

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, about 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 lovely 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, where knives were used in around 40% of homicides 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 to tackle bladed weapons.