UK leader accuses far right of hijacking a town's grief after killing of 3 children sparks violence

LONDON: Residents swept up broken bricks, shattered glass and burnt plastic on Wednesday (Jul 31) after far-right protesters clashed with police outside a mosque in a northwest England town where three girls were fatally stabbed.

A violent crowd of several hundred hurled bricks and bottles at riot police and set garbage bins and vehicles on fire in Southport, hours after a peaceful vigil for the girls, aged 6, 7 and 9, who were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance and yoga class.

The ambulance service said it treated 39 police officers for injuries, 27 of whom were taken to hospitals.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “thuggery” and said the protesters had “hijacked” the community’s grief.

The protesters, who police said were supporters of the far-right English Defence League, were fueled by anger and false online rumors about the 17-year-old suspect arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Police said a name circulating on social media was incorrect and the suspect was born in Britain, contrary to online claims he was an asylum seeker. The names of suspects under the age of 18 are usually not made public in Britain.

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

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

The rampage in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool, 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 United Kingdom homicides.

About two dozen children, mostly girls, were attending a Taylor Swift-themed summer vacation workshop on Monday when a teen armed with a knife entered the studio and began a vicious attack, police said.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died from their injuries. Ten other people were injured, among whom five children and two adults are in critical condition.

Starmer was among a stream of people to pay tribute at the site of the attack.

Laying flowers with hundreds of other wreaths, he thanked emergency workers who responded to the stabbing spree and said: "I came here to pay my respects to the victims and families who are going through raw pain and grief that most of us can't imagine - I can't imagine, as a dad myself."

However, he was heckled by a handful of bystanders as he laid flowers, with one man shouting: "How many more people will die on our streets, prime minister?"

Swift wrote on Instagram that she was still taking in "the horror” of the incident.

“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she wrote on Instagram. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

Aguiar was the daughter of Portuguese parents from Madeira. "Her parents are in a state of shock," Portugal's communities minister Jose Cesario told AFP.

Her family said in a tribute: "Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our princess, like we said before to you, you're always our princess and no one would change that."

King's family said: "No words can describe the devastation that has hit our family as try to deal with the loss of our little girl Bebe."

Residents of the seaside town said they were struggling to come to terms with the deaths.

"The town is in shock and in mourning", Hurley told AFP, calling it the "most horrific atrocity that Southport has experienced in living memory".

It is a "very small town, a close-knit community and everybody will be intimately affected by this", he added.

"I just cannot believe that it happened so close to home," resident Leanne Hassan told reporters.

Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood in the mayhem outside the Hart Space, a community center that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops 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.

“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.”

"UTTERLY HORRIFIC"

The teenager arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder is from the neighbouring village of Banks but was born in Cardiff, according to police.

Police said a name shared on social media was "incorrect and we would urge people not to speculate on details of the incident while the investigation is ongoing".

Witnesses told UK media the attacker arrived at the scene in a taxi on Monday morning and entered the venue wearing a mask.

Armed officers detained the suspect later and seized a knife.

While such attacks are rare, Monday's incident evoked memories of a school massacre in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996, which claimed the lives of 16 pupils and their teacher in Britain's worst mass shooting.

King Charles III offered his "most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies" following the "utterly horrific" incident.