What happened in Southport? How the stabbing attack unfolded

As a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop for young children drew to a close, a taxi pulled up and a 17-year-old youth got out. Minutes later, two children were dead and another nine injured, six critically.

The Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in Hart Street, Southport, was advertised for children aged between six and 12 and sold out quickly.

The event, held at The Hart Space — a centre for expectant mothers, babies and children said to be a “lovely, relaxing” place — also included a bracelet making workshop.

Between 20 and 25 children attended the two-hour event on Monday. As it drew to a close just before noon, a taxi pulled up at the car body shop next door and a 17-year-old youth got out.

An employee at Masters Vehicle Body Repairs said that the boy, who was wearing a mask, refused to pay the driver. Initially he seemed to have the wrong address, walking up the workshop driveway before strolling into the children’s centre. The centre’s front door was usually left unlocked to allow children to use the toilet, according to a staff member, and the teenager walked inside.

Armed with a knife, the youth repeatedly stabbed child after child, and two adults who were believed to have been trying to protect them. The ferocity of the attack would leave the emergency services staff who attended in tears.

Footage of an individual, seen wearing a hooded top, pacing around in front of a house that was later raided by police in Southport was shown on ITV News on Monday evening.

The clip which, was posted on Twitter/X, showed the person walking back and forth in front of the red brick house, with a caption which said it was taken 20 minutes before the knife attacks happened a 15-minute drive away, before the footage switched to a scene of armed police later arriving.

The ITV reporter wrote in his post that neighbours told him they later saw the same individual get into a taxi. He added that the police arrived around two hours after the person was filmed outside the house.

The event was a dance workshop for young children.

‘Everyone was trying to save the young kids’

Colin Parry, the owner of the car body shop, said he was called by an employee who had just seen the masked boy refuse to pay the taxi driver and told him to leave immediately.

Parry told BBC Radio 5 Live that he called the police when he saw young girls leaving the venue bleeding. “Ambulances started arriving then, it was just mayhem,” he said. “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

He said a neighbour took about ten girls to safety in his house. He was helped by another resident. “The community was coming together, everyone was trying to help,” Parry said “Everyone was trying to save the young kids.”

Last night it was reported that Jonathan Hayes, a businessman, tried to disarm the attacker after hearing screams from his office. Hayes, 63, was stabbed in the leg after running into the dance studio in a desperate attempt to intervene.

His wife Helen, 57, told The Daily Telegraph that he regrets he could not do more to stop the “ferocious attack”.

Asked if her husband had tried to put himself between the knifeman and the children, she said: “He did. He heard screams.

“Our office is in the same building as the dance studio, he heard screams and went outside, saw the attacker, saw that he had hurt a child and tried to take the knife off him and got stabbed in the leg.

“The dance studio is tucked away down a little alley, you wouldn’t know that there was a children’s dance studio there just by walking past — you would have to have known it was there.”

A police officer receives flowers to lay at the scene of the multiple stabbing attack. Picture: Getty Images.

She added that she had been with her husband all afternoon at the hospital. She added: “He’s very upset that he wasn’t able to be more help. Physically he will be OK, mentally I don’t know.”

A builder also helped some of the children away.

Deborah Parker, 57, who lives near by, said she saw a ten-year-old girl who had been stabbed rush to her mother, who had come to pick her up.

Parker said: “She went to pick her daughter up and she’s come out saying, ‘Mum, I’ve been stabbed, I’ve been stabbed’. The mum just bundled her in the car and drove as fast as she could and stopped here [about 200m away] and panicked.

“She was screaming ‘help me help me’. She was covered in blood. The girl was just slumped in the front seat. She was barely breathing, it was just horrendous. She was barely conscious. [The mother] didn’t know what had happened because her daughter couldn’t speak.”

The mother drove back towards the ambulances and the daughter was taken to hospital.

Parker said: “The emergency services were so fast, there were loads straight away, flying past us one after the other.”

Video footage showed an air ambulance landing in a supermarket car park nearby.

The media gather near the scene of the multiple stabbing attack. Picture: Getty Images.

A member of Hart Space staff rushed to the scene after the stabbings. She said: “There were probably 25 children there because that’s the max we have there and they had reached the max.

”I don’t even know if the teachers are OK. When I got there, there was a guy who was absolutely distraught, in a mess. He’d seen two children run out and he thought they had got hit by a car because the car was just full of blood at the side. But it was actually that the children who had been stabbed had fallen into the car.”

‘They were injured, bleeding … in the road, running’

Bare Varathan, 35, who owns a corner shop on Hart Street, said he was called by a staff member who told him: “Boss, get to the shop!”

He said: “I saw seven to ten kids outside. They were injured, bleeding. They were in the road, running. They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere. (Varathan indicated the neck, back and chest). They were all aged about ten. One of them was really seriously injured.

“I hope they will be OK. Only two police jeeps and ambulances arrived, then armed police came. Somebody told me he [the attacker] had arrived in a taxi and had a knife.”

Alaina Riley, 18, said: “My auntie phoned me in absolute hysterics. She said someone’s been stabbed. Everyone was covered in blood. Then she watched staff run out carrying children. All she heard was screaming and they are screams no one would ever want to hear. The police then started turning up.

“My auntie said she saw people put children on the floor and start resuscitating them until the paramedics arrived and took over. She watched two children get carried away in body bags.”

One man’s young daughter witnessed the attack from their home. He said: “I was in my front bedroom and I hear screams and I thought it was the sound of children having fun like they’re at a funfair or on a rollercoaster. Then my daughter came in the room looking horrified,” he said.

“I saw bloody children carried out and the emergency services coming in,” he said. “My daughter is scared to go to sleep. She’s going to sleep with us tonight.”

A police officer stands near a cordoned off street after the stabbing attack. Picture: Getty Images.

Emergency services crews in tears

The injured were taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby Hospital. Alder Hey declared a major incident and appealed to parents to bring their children to A & E only if it was urgent.

At the scene, emergency services staff who had treated children at the scene were in tears. Firefighters and ambulance crew sat on the ground, head in hands.

Parents of children at the class were led away in tears by police. Others hugged. Bloodied paper towels were left on the road where paramedics had treated the injured.

A resident said: “I have never seen so many emergency services in one place. The police blocked off the road and gave a police escort to four ambulances. It is just awful.”

The attacker fled, and The Times understands that a personal trainer at a nearby gym helped restrain him.

At 1pm, police cars with sirens blaring drew up in Old School Close, in Banks village, about five miles from the scene of the attack. A helicopter circled overhead, a witness said, and armed police arrived.

At 5.25pm police confirmed they had arrested a 17-year-old male from Banks and said it was not being treated as terrorism-related.

Merseyside police gave a press conference, confirming the extent of the rampage.

Serena Kennedy, chief constable of Merseyside police, said two children had died in the attack. Nine others were injured, six of whom were in a critical condition. All had been stabbed. Two adults were also critically injured.

Kennedy said: “We believe that the adults who were injured were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked.

“It is understood that the children were attending a Taylor Swift event at a dance hall when the offender, armed with a knife, walked into the premises and started to attack inside.

“As a mum of two daughters, and the nanna of a five-year-old granddaughter, I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering the families of the victims are currently going through and I want to send them our heartfelt condolences and sympathies.”

The Times