What should have been a fun summer holiday event for children descended into horror when a knife attack interrupted a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.
Warning: This article contains descriptions some readers may find distressing.
Two children were killed and nine others injured, with six left in critical condition.
Police said two adults were also critically injured, while trying to protect children from the attacker.
The stabbings took place on Monday 29 July, at The Hart Space, a community hub and pregnancy care centre on Hart Street in Southport, around 20 miles north of Liverpool.
Residents described the attack as a “scene from a horror movie”, as eight patients were taken to hospital with stab injuries.
Hart Street is a largely residential area around a mile from Southport station.
The Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop organised by Enlighten, a yoga studio for children, was set to take place from 10am to 12pm.
Posters of the event online show the workshop was for children in Years 2 to 6 at primary school (aged between six and 11).
It was led by two teachers on Monday morning.
‘It’s like something from America’
Colin Parry, a local business owner, was one of the people who called the police, and described the aftermath of the knife attack as like a “scene in a horror movie.”
Mr Parry works at Masters Vehicle Body Repairs, a car body shop that neighbours The Hart Space on Hart Street. He believes he saw the perpetrator in the lead-up to the stabbing.
He described seeing a taxi drop a male passenger off at his address, which had been the incorrect location, before losing sight of the man and catching the tail end of the taxi driving off.
He added: “It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”
“It was definitely intentional.”
The next thing Mr Parry saw was his colleague carrying a young girl out of the building next to Masters, both covered in blood.
Shortly after, parents who came to pick their children up just before lunchtime were screaming in distress, he added.
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Ryan Carney, who lives with his mother on Hart Street, said he rushed home from work to be with her after she saw the commotion.
Mr Carney said his mother Hayley saw a “woman screaming saying she couldn’t find her child”.
He added his mother saw emergency services “carrying out a few bodies of girls… in white, but covered in red, covered in blood”, adding that she could “see the stab wounds in the backs of the children”.
How emergency services responded to ‘ferocious attack’
At 11.47am, Merseyside Police received an emergency call reporting an incident at an address on Hart Street.
Just one minute later, at 11.48am, the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) responded after a call reporting the stabbings.
Emergency services quickly declared a “major incident”, as 13 ambulances and an air ambulance were dispatched to the scene.
Dave Kitchin, head of service for the North West Ambulance Service in Cheshire and Merseyside, later added that paramedics encountered a “devastating scene” when they arrived.
He said ambulances and air ambulances were used to take the 13 victims to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Manchester Children’s Hospital, Aintree Hospital, Southport & Formby Hospital and Ormskirk Hospital.
Alder Hey declared a “major incident”, saying its emergency department was “extremely busy” and urged parents to only bring their children to the department if it was urgent.
Firefighters were also sent to the scene of the stabbings to provide trauma care, administer first aid and carry out a search for other people who may have been caught up in the attack.
At 4.15pm, fire and rescue crews stood down.
In a press conference at around 6.45pm, Chief Constable of Merseyside Police Serena Kennedy said when officers arrived they were “shocked to find” several children had been “subjected to a ferocious attack and had suffered serious injuries”.
“The offender, armed with a knife, walked into the premises and started to attack the children inside,” the chief constable added.
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Boy, 17, arrested
The police said a 17-year-old male from the nearby Lancashire village of Banks, who was born in Cardiff, had been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, and taken into custody.
The attack is not currently being treated as terror-related, police added.
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The King and Queen are among those who have sent their “deepest sympathies” to the families of those affected.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also said she was “deeply concerned” about the “very serious incident”, while the prime minister provided a clip to broadcasters saying the whole country was “shocked” by the attack.
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