A third child has died after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed children’s party in Southport, England, allegedly at the hands of a knifeman from a family of Rwandan refugees.
Musician Taylor Swift has responded with horror to a mass stabbing in the United Kingdom against children attending a summer holiday dance workshop themed on her music at a community centre in Southport, near Liverpool, in north-east England.
Swift posted to social media that she was struggling with how to express sympathies with the families of the victims. She wrote:
The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock… The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.
Police were called to a community centre in the seaside town of Southport, Merseyside, a little before midday on Monday to reports of a knife-attack. As expressed by the local police chief at a press conference on Monday night, officers were horrified to discover “multiple people, many of whom were children, had been subjected to a ferocious attack and had suffered serious injuries” at the scene.
The death toll for the attack rose from one to two over the course of Monday, and tragically on Tuesday morning Merseyside Police announced a third child had died as a result of their injuries. Those killed were all girls, aged six, seven, and nine years old.
Eight other children were injured, including five who are in critical condition and who are said to be fighting for life. Two adults were also injured, and police praised them for having attempted to fight off the attacker. The Daily Telegraph has named those adults as 35-year-old dance teacher Leanne Lucas, who was critically injured, and 63-year-old businessman Jonathan Hayes. Mr Hayes’ wife said he ran into the dance studio in a bid to stop the attack and that he put himself between the knifeman and the children.
She is reported to have said: “Our office is in the same building as the dance studio, he heard screams and went outside, saw the attacker, saw that he had hurt a child and tried to take the knife off him and got stabbed in the leg.”
Police are holding a 17-year-old male who was arrested shortly after the attack at a residential address in nearby Banks village. Because the suspect is a minor he cannot be named under British law, but it has been reported by The Times that he is born of Rwandan parents who travelled to the United Kingdom as refugees from the genocide. The suspect is said to have been born in Wales and moved to the Merseyside area as a child.
Police say while counter terror police are assisting the investigation, and while no motivation for the attack has been made public, they are not presently calling the attack terrorism-related.
Two Children Killed in Mass Stabbing at Taylor Swift-Themed Kid’s Party, 11 Injuredhttps://t.co/vfQzxpnbpc
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 29, 2024
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