‘Ferocious’ knife attack at UK dance class leaves 2 children dead, 11 people injured
- A 17-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder
Bloodied children ran screaming from a dance and yoga class “like a scene from a horror movie” to escape a teenager’s savage knife attack that killed two children and wounded 11 other people Monday in northwest England, police and witnesses said.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in the stabbing in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool, Merseyside Police said. The motive was not clear, but police said detectives were not treating the attack as terror-related.
Nine children were wounded – six of them in critical condition – in the latest headline-grabbing attack amid a recent rise in knife crime that has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons.
Two wounded adults who tried to shield the pupils were in critical condition, police said.
“We believe the adults who were injured were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked,” Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.