British police say they have charged a 17-year-old with three counts of murder over a stabbing attack that killed three children in Southport, northwest England.
The Merseyside Police force says the teenager, who has not been named because of his age, also faces 10 counts of attempted murder over people injured in the attack.
He is due to appear in court later Thursday.
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About two dozen children were attending a Taylor Swift-themed summer vacation workshop on Monday local time when an attacker with a knife burst in.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, died from their injuries.
Ten other people were injured, among whom five girls and two adults are in critical condition.
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Police in a statement said the investigation was “very much” still ongoing.
Earlier, a cousin of class organiser Leanne Lucas said the yoga teacher had been wounded shielding “two little girls” from the attack.
“She’s just a star. She always gives, and never expects anything from anybody,” Chris Rimmer told the BBC.
He said Lucas, who was taken to hospital in a critical condition, was recovering but was “not out of the woods” yet.
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About two dozen children were attending the 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.
Swift wrote on Instagram that she was still taking in “the horror” of the event. “These were just little kids at a dance class,” she said. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood in the mayhem outside the Hart Space, a community centre that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops to women’s boot camps.
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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.”
Hours after a peaceful vigil for the slain children in Southport, violence erupted when far-right protesters clashed with police.
It followed online misinformation which claimed, without evidence, that the alleged attacker was an asylum seeker.
Police said a name of the suspect circulating on social media — spread by far-right activists and accounts of murky origin purporting to be news organisations — was incorrect and that he was born in Britain.
More than 50 officers were injured during the riot, including more than two dozen who were taken to hospitals, officials said.
“I am absolutely appalled and disgusted at the level of violence that was shown towards my officers,” Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.
“Some of the first responders who attended that awful scene on Monday … then were faced with that level of violence.”
Five men have been arrested in connection with the riots in Southport, mainly for violent disorder; one was arrested for possessing a knife and fighting. Kennedy said more arrests were expected.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the “thuggery” and said the protesters “hijacked” the community’s grief.
With Associated Press.
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