A third little one dies after the stabbing rampage at a dance class in England

LONDON — Three younger ladies killed in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class in northwestern England have been recognized Tuesday as police questioned the 17-year-old suspect arrested within the assault that wounded 10 others.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, died early Tuesday from her accidents, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died Monday, police stated.

“Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our princess,” Aguiar’s mother and father stated in an announcement launched by police. “Like we said before to you, you’re always our princess and no one would change that.”

King’s household stated no phrases may describe their devastation on the loss “of our little lady Bebe.”

Eight kids and two adults stay hospitalized after the assault in Southport. Each adults and 5 of the youngsters are in vital situation.

Swift stated on Instagram that she was “completely in shock” and nonetheless taking in “the horror” of the occasion.

“These have been simply little children at a dance class,” she wrote. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

People left flowers and stuffed animals in tribute at a police cordon on the street lined with brick houses in the seaside resort near Liverpool where the beach and pier attract vacationers from across northwest England.

Witnesses described scenes “from a horror movie” as bloodied children ran from the attack just before noon Monday. The teenage suspect was arrested soon afterward on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived for years in a village about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Southport. He has not yet been charged.

Police said detectives are not treating Monday’s attack as terror-related and are not looking for any other suspects.

People posted online messages of support for teacher Leanne Lucas, the organizer of the event, who was one of those attacked.

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

A gaggle of Swift’s U.Ok. followers calling themselves “Swifties for Southport” launched a web-based fundraiser to assist households of the victims. It raised over 100,000 kilos ($128,000) inside 24 hours.

The rampage is the newest surprising assault in a rustic the place a current rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties and led to requires the federal government to do extra to clamp down on bladed weapons, that are by far probably the most generally used devices in U.Ok. homicides.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was jeered by some as he visited the crime scene and lay a wreath of pink and white flowers with a handwritten word that stated: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words for such profound loss. The nation’s thoughts are with you.”

“How many more children?” one particular person yelled as Starmer was getting in his automobile. “Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”

Starmer instructed reporters earlier that he’s decided to get a “grip” on excessive ranges of knife crime however stated it was not a day for politics.

The prime minister met with and thanked the police, firefighters and ambulance crews who had witnessed the carnage, saying he was “incredibly proud” of what they did and amazed they have been again at work.

“There are children today alive because of what you did yesterday,” he stated. “That’s unimaginable.”

Witnesses described listening to screams and seeing kids coated in blood rising from the Hart Area, a group heart that hosts all the things from being pregnant workshops and meditation periods to girls’s boot camps.

The Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop was a summer time trip exercise for youngsters aged about 6 to 11.

“They were in the road, running from the nursery,” stated Naked Varathan, who owns a store close by. “They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,” he stated, indicating the neck, again and chest.

Richard Townes, a kids’s entertainer from Southport, stated mother and father in texting teams are terrified now to ship their kids to summer time applications

“I have a 5-year-old daughter who could have just as easily been at the class,” Townes said. “I feel helpless and like I can’t do anything.”

Colin Parry, who owns a close-by auto physique store, instructed The Guardian that the suspect arrived by taxi.

“He came down our driveway in a taxi and didn’t pay for the taxi, so I confronted him at that point,” Parry was quoted as saying. “He was quite aggressive, he said, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’”

Parry stated many of the victims seemed to be younger ladies.

“It is like a scene from a horror movie. … It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport,” he stated.

Britain’s worst assault on kids occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot 16 kindergartners and their trainer lifeless in a faculty gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The U.Ok. subsequently banned the non-public possession of virtually all handguns.

Mass shootings and killings with firearms are exceptionally uncommon in Britain, the place knives have been utilized in about 40% of homicides within the yr to March 2023.

Mass stabbings are additionally very uncommon, in accordance with Iain Overton, govt director of Motion on Armed Violence.

“Most knife attacks are one-on-one and personal — either domestic violence or gang related — so this tragedy is very unusual and, accordingly, garners lots of media interest,” Overton stated. “This offers no comfort to the grieving families, of course.”

A number of assaults in recent times have generated outrage and acquired an incredible quantity of consideration:

— In London in April, a person with a sword killed a 14-year-old boy strolling to high school and severely injured 4 different folks, together with two cops.

— In Nottingham in central England in June 2022, a paranoid schizophrenic man fatally stabbed two faculty college students strolling house from celebrating the top of the varsity yr after which killed a 65-year-old man, stole his van and used it to hit three pedestrians.

— In Studying, west of London, in June 2020, a failed Libyan asylum seeker fatally stabbed three males and wounded three others.