A number of injured in Southport stabbing as police detain man with knife

Two adults have been additionally stabbed and are in vital situation. Kennedy stated the adults look like have been injured whereas making an attempt to guard the kids.

The Merseyside Police stated they arrested a 17-year-old boy from the close by village of Banks on suspicion of homicide and tried homicide. Additionally they recovered a knife, police stated. They stated the arrested youth was initially from Cardiff.

“We will additionally verify that the incident just isn’t at the moment being handled as terror-related, and we aren’t on the lookout for anybody else in reference to the incident,” the police stated.

The assault was at a small group middle the place primary-school-age kids have been attending a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance class. The constructing is down an alleyway on Hart Road, a largely residential highway of two-story brick buildings with some scattered outlets.

“It’s understood that the kids have been attending a Taylor Swift occasion at a dance faculty when the offender, who was armed with a knife, walked into the premises and began to assault these inside,” Kennedy stated on the information convention. “We consider that the adults who have been injured have been making an attempt to guard the kids on the time they have been attacked.”

Kennedy added, “As a mum of two daughters, and the nanna of a five-year-old granddaughter, I can not start to think about the ache and struggling the households of the victims are at the moment going by way of, and I need to ship them our heartfelt condolences and sympathies.”

The assault happened a couple of minutes earlier than midday on the primary day of the varsity vacation.

The North West Ambulance Service stated it responded to “reviews of a number of stabbings” with 13 ambulances and a helicopter. Emergency companies crews handled 11 individuals on the scene. The wounded have been taken to Alder Hey Kids’s Hospital, Aintree College Hospital and Southport and Formby Hospital.”

The police described the assault as “ferocious.”

Tim Johnson, a journalist at Eye on Southport, advised the BBC he noticed a bloodied lady on a stretcher.

“Her mother and father have been working after her. It was horrendous. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” Johnson advised the broadcaster.

BBC Radio interviewed a person who he stated noticed younger ladies “bleeding.” A Press Affiliation reporter interviewed a person who stated among the victims gave the impression to be round 10 years previous.

Different witnesses advised reporters that oldsters have been working up and down the road, wailing and screaming. Native WhatsApp teams acquired frenzied messages telling individuals to go inside and lock doorways.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the stabbings as “horrendous and deeply stunning information.”

A motive for the stabbings was not instantly clear. The arrested youth will probably be interviewed by detectives, the police stated, and officers have been seen on the home the place he’s believed to stay.

Southport is a seaside city identified for its seashores and Victorian structure, about an hour’s drive north of Liverpool. It has a inhabitants of about 95,000.