Children dead in ‘horrendous’ UK stabbing attack
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to an editing error, this article originally stated that an outlet claiming to be based in the US, called Channel3 Now, had identified the suspect as Ali-Al-Shakati, an asylum-seeker who allegedly arrived in the UK by boat last year.
He was reportedly “on the MI6 watch list and known to Liverpool mental health services.”
Channel3 Now, which seems to specialize in covering shootings, mostly in America, later deleted the claim. It appears to be an “aggregator” that often publishes fake claims designed to go viral.
The website was registered under a Lithuanian domain in 2023, and British media has reported that it “has a single named author, called James Lawley, whose LinkedIn account states that he owns a gardening company in Nova Scotia, Canada... and the site is routed through a Massachusetts-based service that anonymizes website ownership details.” There have also been claims that it’s connected to a “Russian disinformation network,” but no evidence has been provided to support this.
RT apologizes for the error.
A knife-wielding attacker has injured eleven children – two of them fatally – and two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga event in the town of Southport in northwestern England.
Merseyside Police were called to Hart Street in the town of 95,000 just before noon on Monday, and said they detained a man armed with a knife.
Police identified the suspect as “a 17-year-old male” from the nearby community of Banks and said the incident is “not currently being treated as terror-related.”
Two of the stabbed children died, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said on Monday evening. Of the nine that were injured, six were still in critical condition, as were the two adults wounded while attempting to confront the attacker.
Police confirmed that the target was a “Taylor Swift yoga and dance workshop” for elementary-school age children, hosted by a studio on Hart Street.
Colin Parry, owner of Masters Vehicle Body Repairs nearby, told reporters that six or seven “young girls” had been stabbed.
“The mothers are coming here now and screaming. It is like a scene from a horror movie,” Parry told the PA news agency. “It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, urged the public not to spread “unconfirmed speculation and false information” and wait for official updates. Local authorities originally offered few details about the attack, however, saying only that “there is no wider threat to the public.”
The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it had dispatched 13 ambulances and special resources to the scene. So far, “eight patients with stab injuries” have been treated at Merseyside’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby hospital, NWAS said.
Alder Hey has asked parents to only bring children in for treatment “if it is urgent,” as the hospital’s emergency department is “currently extremely busy.”
“Horrendous and deeply shocking news emerging from Southport. My thoughts are with all those affected,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X, formerly Twitter, in response to the incident. “I am being kept updated as the situation develops.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the incident as “very serious” and “awful,” thanking the emergency services for their “swift and courageous response.”
