A teenage girl who was badly injured in the Southport attack has told the inquiry how she helped get some of the younger girls to safety.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed at the Taylor Swift-themed class on July 29 last year by Axel Rudakubana, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years.
A public inquiry is now looking at whether the attack could have been prevented, considering what was already known about the killer.
The child survivors have been given anonymity, but Child C6 gave evidence in person, describing how she was stabbed in the arm and the back.
She was facing the door when the attacker came into the room and at first thought it must be “some sort of joke”.
“I looked at his eyes. He looked possessed, he didn’t look human,” she said.
“I saw him stab someone in front of me and realised that he was going to hurt us all. Then I saw him coming towards me.
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“It felt like everything slowed down. All I could hear was the screaming.
“I relive those screams every time I think about what happened.”
‘Get out, get everyone to safety’
The girl was stabbed so hard in her arm and back that her lung collapsed and two bones in her back were broken.
“I reached the door and, on the landing, I screamed for the girls around me to get down the stairs and remember physically pushing them to get them out of the building, to get away.
“I just kept thinking, ‘get them out, get everyone to safety.’ When we got to the car park I remember thinking, ‘he’s going to keep coming, he’s not going to stop until he has killed us all’ and so we kept running.
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“I will never forget the fear, the panic or the way I felt wondering if we were going to survive.”
Read more:
Southport stabbing victim reveals how she survived
The missed chances to stop Rudakubana
The teenager told the inquiry how dance had always been a big part of her life, and that of her younger sister, who was also at the holiday class.
“Our dad dropped us off. It was warm and sunny and felt like it was going to be a perfect day,” she said.
“At first, there was laughter and excitement but then everything changed – that day turned into a living nightmare.”
‘Stuck between two worlds’
The teenager described how she feels “stuck between two worlds.”
“I don’t fit with the adults there that day, or with those younger than me. I am somewhere in the middle. I feel isolated, like I don’t fit in anywhere. Recovering can feel incredibly lonely.”
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She said her little sister still has nightmares and her parents worry about them all the time.
“I still have nightmares,” the teenager added. “I see him coming towards me. I see him hurting others, I hear the screams, I see the blood. It’s like a horror film on repeat.”
