British police charge teenager with murder over stabbing that left 3 children dead at Taylor Swift-themed event

LONDON (AP) — British police said Thursday they have charged a 17-year-old with murder in a stabbing attack that left three young girls dead and several others in critical condition. The charges came as the traumatized city of Southport cleared of far-right violence, and agitators fueled by anger and misinformation clashed with police near the prime minister’s London residence.

Merseyside Police said the teenager, who has not been named due to his age, has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder over injuries sustained in the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance and yoga class.

He is due to appear in court in Liverpool later on Thursday.

About two dozen children were attending a summer school workshop on Monday when an assailant burst in with a knife. Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died from their injuries. Ten other people were injured, including five girls and two adults who are in critical condition.

Far-right protesters have launched several violent protests, apparently in response to the attack, including clashes with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday.

Several hundred protesters threw beer cans and flares near British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street home in central London on Wednesday night. More than 100 people were arrested for offences including violent disorder and assault on an emergency worker, London’s Metropolitan Police Force said.

Police also faced violent protesters in the north-east English town of Hartlepool, where far-right groups sought to stoke anger over an attack they attempted to link – without evidence – to immigrants.

Hours earlier, residents of Southport had swept broken glass and bricks from the streets after far-right protesters clashed with police outside a mosque in the seaside town.

On Tuesday night, a crowd of several hundred people threw rocks and bottles at riot police in Southport, set fire to bins and vehicles and looted a shop, hours after a peaceful vigil for the girls, aged 6, 7 and 9, was killed. More than 50 officers were injured, including more than two dozen who were taken to hospitals, officials said.

“I am absolutely shocked and disgusted by the level of violence shown to my officers,” said Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy. “Some of the emergency services who attended that terrible scene on Monday … were met with that level of violence.”

Five men have been arrested in connection with the Southport riots, mainly for violent disorder; one was arrested for possessing a knife and affray. Kennedy said more arrests were expected.

Starmer condemned the “banditry” and said the protesters were “hijacking” the community’s grief.

Norman Wallis, director of Southport Pleasureland, was one of dozens of people who cleared the rubble with brushes and shovels.

“It’s terrible what those hooligans did last night,” he said. “But none of those people were the people of Southport,” he added. “The people of Southport are the ones who are cleaning up the mess here today.”

The protesters, who police said were supporters of the far-right English Defence League, are said to have spread false rumours about the suspect online.

Police said a name circulating on social media — spread by far-right activists and accounts of shady origins claiming to be news organizations — was incorrect and that he was born in Britain, contrary to online claims that he was an asylum seeker. The names of suspects under the age of 18 are not generally made public in Britain.

Patrick Hurley, the local lawmaker, said the violence by “agitated thugs” was the result of “propaganda and lies” spread on social media.

“This misinformation doesn’t just exist on people’s internet browsers and phones. It has an impact on the real world,” he said.

Chanaka Balasuryla, whose local shop was looted for booze and cigarettes, said he saw a gang break in on a CCTV camera at home. He was terrified because a woman and her daughter lived upstairs and he feared the looters would set fire to the shop.

He later learned that the woman had confronted the crowd and told them that the Windsor Mini Mart was her store and asked them to stop. The next morning he went to his store and there were people waiting to help him clean up.

“I feel safe again because there are people to protect us,” he said.

The Southport shooting is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has fuelled concerns and led to calls for the government to take a tougher approach to stabbing weapons, by far the most commonly used weapons in murders in the UK.

Witnesses said they heard screams and saw children covered in blood in the chaos outside the Hart Space, a community centre that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops to women’s boot camps.

Joel Verite, a window cleaner who was in a van on his lunch break, said his coworker slammed on the brakes and backed up, leaving a woman hanging from the side of a car covered in blood.

“She was just screaming at me, ‘He’s killing children out there. He’s killing children out there,'” Verite told Sky News.

“It was like a scene you see in a disaster movie,” he said. “I can’t tell you how horrible what I saw was.”

The worst attack on children in Britain was in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pre-schoolers and their teacher in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The UK subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.

Although knives are used in approximately 40% of murders each year, mass stabbings are rare.

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Pan Pylas, an Associated Press editor in London, contributed to this report.

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