Here’s the latest on the stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the UK

LONDON (AP) — Three girls killed in a stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class in northwest England were identified Tuesday as police questioned the 17-year-old suspect arrested in the attack that injured 10 others.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, died early Tuesday from her injuries, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died Monday, police said.

“Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do, our princess,” Aguiar’s parents said in a statement released by police. “As we have told you before, you are still our princess and no one would change that.”

The king’s family said no words could describe their devastation at the loss of “our little girl Bebe”.

Eight children and two adults remain in hospital after the Southport attack. The two adults and five of the children are in critical condition.

Swift said on Instagram that she was “completely shocked” and still dealing with the “horror” of the event.

“They were just little kids taking a dance class,” she wrote. “I don’t know how to express my sympathy to these families.”

Flowers and stuffed animals were laid in tribute to the victim, in front of a police cordon that lined the street lined with brick houses in this seaside resort near Liverpool, where the beach and pier attract holidaymakers from the northwest of England. Messages of support were also posted online for teacher Leanne Lucas, the organiser of the event, who was among the victims attacked.

Witnesses described scenes “like something out of a horror movie” as bloodied children ran away from the attack shortly before midday on Monday. The teenage suspect was arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived for years in a village about three miles from Southport. He has not yet been charged.

Police said detectives were not considering Monday’s attack to be terrorism-related and were not looking for any other suspects.

The rampage is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has fuelled concern and led to calls for the government to do more to crack down on bladed weapons, which are by far the most common instrument used in UK homicides.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was booed by some as he visited the scene of the crime and laid a wreath of pink and white flowers with a handwritten note that read: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words to describe such a profound loss. The thoughts of the nation are with you.”

“How many more children?” one person shouted as Starmer got into his car. “Our children are dead and you’re leaving already?”

Starmer told reporters earlier he was determined to “get a grip” on high levels of knife crime but said it was not a day for politics.

Witnesses described hearing screams and children covered in blood amid the chaos outside Hart Space, a community center that hosts pregnancy workshops, meditation sessions and women’s boot camps.

Joel Verite, a window cleaner who was traveling in a van on his lunch break, said his colleague slammed on the brakes and reversed to where a woman was hanging over the side of a car covered in blood.

“She screamed at me: ‘He’s killing children over there. He’s killing children over there,'” Verite told Sky News.

The woman, who was on the phone with police, told him where the violence was happening and then collapsed. Verite said he picked up the phone to speak to police and then ran in the direction she told him.

A woman honking her horn caught his attention and he found her with five to six bloodied children inside. The woman said she was trying to get the children to safety.

“It was like a scene from a disaster movie,” he said. “I can’t explain to you how horrible what I saw was.”

He carried an unconscious girl into the street and his work partner tended to her while he ran to the dance studio, where he was surprised to catch the eye of a man in a hooded tracksuit holding a knife at the top of the stairs.

“All I saw was a knife and I thought, ‘There are other people in there,’ and I wanted to hurt him so bad,” Verite said. “But I was scared for myself and I wanted to help people. So I went out and screamed because I knew where he was.”

He said it took about 10 minutes for police to arrive at the scene. The first officer to arrive said he had to wait for backup, then they went up the stairs and attacked the suspect.

The Swift-themed workshop was a summer holiday activity for children aged six to 11. Richard Townes, a children’s entertainer from Southport, said parents in the text message groups were now terrified of sending their children to summer programmes.

“I have a 5-year-old daughter who could have been in that class just as well,” Townes said. “I feel helpless and I don’t feel like I can do much.”

A group of British Swift fans called Swifties for Southport launched an online fundraiser to help the victims’ families, raising more than £100,000 ($128,000) in 24 hours.

Britain’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when Thomas Hamilton, 43, shot dead 16 nursery school pupils and their teacher in a school gym in Dunblane, Scotland. The UK subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.

Mass shootings and murders involving firearms are exceptionally rare in Britain, where knives were used in around 40% of homicides in the year to March 2023.

Mass stabbings are also very rare, according to Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence.

“Most knife attacks are individual and personal – whether they’re related to domestic violence or gang violence – so this tragedy is very unusual and, as a result, it’s generating a lot of media interest,” Overton said. “It’s obviously not a comfort to the grieving families.”

Several attacks in recent years have sparked outrage and received considerable attention:

— In London in April, a man armed with a sword killed a 14-year-old boy walking to school and seriously injured four other people, including two police officers.

— In Nottingham, central England, in June 2022, a paranoid schizophrenic man fatally stabbed two students walking home from a school end-of-year celebration, then killed a 65-year-old man, stole his van, and used it to hit three pedestrians.

— In Reading, west London, in June 2020, a failed Libyan asylum seeker fatally stabbed three men and injured three others.