Police identify 3 girls killed in stabbing rampage at UK dance class

LONDON (AP) — Three young girls killed in a stabbing rampage at a dance and yoga class in northwestern England were identified Tuesday as police questioned the 17-year-old suspect arrested in the attack that wounded 10 others.

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

“Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our princess,” Aguiar’s parents said in a statement released by police. “Like we said before to you, you’re always our princess and no one would change that.”

King’s family said no words could describe their devastation at the loss “of our little girl Bebe.”

Eight children and two adults remain hospitalized after the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed summer vacation activity for children aged about 6 to 11 in Southport. Both adults and five of the children are in critical condition.

Swift said on Instagram that she was “completely in shock” and still taking in “the horror” of the event.

“These were just little kids 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. They also posted online messages of support for teacher Leanne Lucas, the organizer of the event, who was one of those attacked.

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.

The rampage is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons, which are by far the most commonly used instruments in U.K. 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 note that said: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words for such profound loss. The nation’s thoughts are with you.”

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

Starmer told reporters earlier that he is determined to get a “grip” on high levels of knife crime but said it was not a day for politics.

Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood in the chaos outside the Hart Space, a community center that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops and meditation sessions to women’s boot camps.

Joel Verite, a window cleaner riding in a van on his lunch break, said his colleague slammed on the brakes and reversed to where a woman was hanging on the side of a car covered in blood.

“She just screamed at me: ‘He’s killing kids over there. He’s killing kids over there,’” Verite told Sky News.

The woman, who was on the phone with police, directed him to where the violence was unfolding and then collapsed. Verite said he took the phone to talk with police and then ran in the direction she had pointed.

A woman honking the horn of her car caught his attention and he found her with five to six bloody children inside. The woman said she was trying to get the kids to safety.

“It was like a scene you’d see on a disaster film,” he said. “I can’t explain to you how horrific it is what I saw.”

He carried an unconscious girl to the street and his work partner attended to her while he ran to the dance studio, where he was startled to lock eyes with a man in a hooded tracksuit holding a knife at the top of the stairs.

“All I saw was a knife and I thought: ‘There are more people in there,’ and I just wanted to hurt him so bad,” Verite said. “But I was scared for myself and I wanted to help people. So I came outside and I was screaming because I knew where he was.”

He said it took about 10 minutes for police to show up. The first officer who arrived said he needed to wait for backup and then they went up the stairs and tackled the suspect.

Richard Townes, a children’s entertainer from Southport, said parents in texting groups are terrified now to send their children to summer programs.

“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.”

A group of Swift’s U.K. fans calling themselves “Swifties for Southport” launched an online fundraiser to help families of the victims. It raised over 100,000 pounds ($128,000) within 24 hours.

Britain’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot 16 kindergartners and their teacher dead in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The U.K. subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.

Mass shootings and killings with firearms are exceptionally rare in Britain, where knives were used in about 40% of homicides in the year to March 2023.

Mass stabbings are also very rare, according to Iain Overton, executive director of Action 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 said. “This offers no comfort to the grieving families, of course.”

Several attacks in recent years have generated outrage and received a tremendous amount of attention:

— In London in April, a man with a sword killed a 14-year-old boy walking to school and seriously injured four other people, including two police officers.

— In Nottingham in central England in June 2022, a paranoid schizophrenic man fatally stabbed two college students walking home from celebrating the end of the school year and then killed a 65-year-old man, stole his van and used it to hit three pedestrians.

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