Janice R. Andrews
UK’s Southport – Outside a mosque in northwest England, close to the scene of a deadly stabbing incident that claimed the lives of three young girls, a belligerent mob engaged in combat with police. More than 20 police officers were injured on Tuesday when far-right demonstrators threw bottles and stones at them after becoming enraged over unfounded online reports.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed that the throng had taken over a previous peaceful vigil and denounced the “thuggery.” In Southport, hundreds had come to grieve for the 10 stabbing victims who survived—seven of whom are still in serious condition—as well as the three girls.
Authorities claimed the angry mob, which set fire to multiple cars and a police van, was thought to be made up of far-right English Defence League followers. Rumors regarding the identification of the adolescent suspect who was detained on suspicion of murder and attempted murder are said to have caused the mayhem.
Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss of Merseyside Police said, “There has been a lot of conjecture and conjecture regarding the status of a 17-year-old male who is currently in police custody, and some individuals are using this to bring violence and disorder to our streets.” In the past, police have stated that the youngster was born in Britain, despite internet rumors that he was an asylum seeker, and that the suspect’s identity that was going around on social media was false.
The “heinous” stabbing was denounced by the Liverpool Region Mosque Network as an act against society that had nothing to do with Islam. The organization posted on the social networking site X, saying, “A minority of people are attempting to portray that this inhumane act is somehow related to the Muslim community.” “To be honest, it’s not, and we can’t allow those who want to sow discord and hatred to take advantage of this.”
Some of the mob, wearing masks, assaulted officers outside the Southport Mosque in riot gear with bricks taken from garden walls as they chanted, “No surrender!” and “English till I die!” The scene was filled with commotion as firecrackers went off, sirens sounded, and a chopper hovered overhead.
Eight of the twenty-two injured cops had more severe wounds, such as fractures, cuts, and concussions. Bricks injured two police dogs, while burns injured a third.
The girls had been taking part in a dance and yoga course with a Taylor Swift theme during the first week of summer vacation when an adolescent with a knife entered the studio and launched a savage attack, according to police, a day earlier, not far from the chaos.
“It’s challenging to understand or articulate the horror of what transpired,” Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told lawmakers during a briefing. “What ought to have been a happy beginning to the summer descended into an unfathomable tragedy.”
According to the police, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, passed away from their wounds. In an announcement made public by the police, Aguiar’s parents remarked, “Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our princess.” “You will always be our princess, and no one would change that, as we have stated to you before.” King’s family released a statement expressing their shock at the passing of “our little girl Bebe.”
Following the incident in Southport, two adults and eight children are still in the hospital. Five of the youngsters and the adults are critically ill.
In the early evening, a heartbroken group of people gathered in Southport outside The Atkinson theater and museum to observe a minute of silence in memory of the deaths. The mayor of the Sefton area, which includes Southport, June Burns, asked residents to be kind to one another and to be calm. When she had gone to the scene of the tragedy earlier, she claimed to have been struck with grief. She remarked, “It’s unbelievable that we find ourselves putting flowers on the heads of little girls who just wanted to dance.”
Swift posted on Instagram about her astonishment and grief. She stated, “These were just little kids at a dance class.” “I have no idea how I will ever be able to express my condolences to these families.”
Vacationers visit this seaside town near Liverpool, where the pier and beach draw them in, and they pay their respects by leaving flowers and plush animals at a police barrier on the street lined with brick buildings. Additionally, they shared supportive comments on the internet for the event’s organizer, teacher Leanne Lucas, who was one of the people who was attacked.
Shortly before noon, following the attacks, the 17-year-old suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. According to the police, he was raised in a village around three miles (5 kilometers) from Southport and was born in Cardiff, Wales. He is not yet facing any charges.
The rampage is the most recent horrifying incident in a nation where calls for the government to take greater action to crack down on bladed weapons—by far the most often used weapon in killings in the UK—have grown as a result of a recent spike in knife crime.
As he visited the crime scene and placed a wreath made of pink and white flowers with a handwritten letter that said, “Our hearts are broken; there are no words for such profound loss,” the prime minister was made fun of by others. The country is thinking of you. A passerby shouted, “How many more children?” as Starmer was boarding his vehicle. “You’re leaving already, and our kids are dead?” Although Starmer reminded reporters earlier that today was not the day for politics, he is committed to confront the high rates of knife crime.
Witnesses said they saw toddlers covered in blood and heard screaming during the chaos outside the Hart Space, a community center that offers programs for pregnant mothers as well as boot camps for women. During his lunch break, window cleaner Joel Verite was riding in a van when his colleague slammed on the brakes and reversed to where a blood-covered woman was hanging on the side of a car.
She yelled, “He’s killing kids over there,” at me. “He’s murdering children over there,” Verite said to Sky News. He followed the woman, who was on the phone with the police, to the scene of the violence before she passed out. Verite said that he bolted in the direction she indicated.
He saw a mom with five or six bloodied children inside her car after he heard her beep the horn. The lady claimed to be attempting to get the children to safety. He remarked, “It was like a scene out of a disaster movie.” “It’s indescribable how horrible what I witnessed is.” Running to the dancing class, he was horrified to see, at the top of the stairs, a man in a hooded tracksuit clutching a knife. “All I saw was a knife, and I immediately thought, ‘There must be more people in there,'” Verite recalled. However, I wanted to assist people and I was afraid for myself. I was yelling when I went outside since I knew where he was.
The worst assault on children in British history was in 1996 when Thomas Hamilton, then 43 years old, fatally shot 16 kindergarten students and their teacher in a Dunblane, Scotland, school gymnasium. Almost all handguns were thereafter outlawed for private ownership in the United Kingdom. Gun-related deaths and mass shootings are extremely uncommon in Britain, where, in the year ending in March 2023, knives were used in almost 40% of homicides.
According to Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence, mass stabbings are likewise extremely uncommon. According to Overton, “most knife attacks are one-on-one and personal; they’re either related to domestic violence or gangs. As a result, this tragedy is extremely unusual and attracts a lot of media attention.” “This offers no comfort to the grieving families, of course.”
