3 girls killed in stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed U.K. dance class

An elderly couple leaves a floral tribute.

By Jill Lawless and Brian Melley

July 30, 2024 10:41 AM PT

LONDON — Three young girls killed in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class in northwestern England were identified Tuesday as police questioned the 17-year-old suspect arrested in the attack that wounded 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. “Like we said before to you, you’re always our princess and no one would change that.”

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

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

Swift said on Instagram that she was “completely in shock” and still taking in “the horror” of the event.

“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she wrote. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

People left flowers and stuffed animals in tribute at a police cordon on the street lined with brick houses in the seaside resort near Liverpool where the beach and pier attract vacationers from across northwest England.

Witnesses described scenes “from a horror movie” as bloodied children ran from the attack just before noon Monday. The teenage suspect was arrested soon afterward on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived for years in a village about 3 miles from Southport. He has not yet been charged.

Police said detectives are not treating Monday’s attack as terror-related and are not looking for any other suspects.

People posted online messages of support for teacher Leanne Lucas, the organizer of the event, who was one of those attacked.

“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.

A group of Swift’s U.K. fans calling themselves “Swifties for Southport” launched an online fundraiser to help families of the victims. It raised over 100,000 pounds ($128,000) within 24 hours.

The rampage is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons, which are by far the most commonly used instruments in U.K. homicides.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was jeered by some as he visited the crime scene and lay a wreath of pink and white flowers with a handwritten note that said: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words for such profound loss. The nation’s thoughts are with you.”

“How many more children?” one person yelled as Starmer was getting in his car. “Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”

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

The prime minister met with and thanked the police, firefighters and ambulance crews who had witnessed the carnage, saying he was “incredibly proud” of what they did and amazed they were back at work.

“There are children today alive because of what you did yesterday,” he said. “That is incredible.”

Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood emerging from the Hart Space, a community center that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops and meditation sessions to women’s boot camps.

The Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop was a summer vacation activity for children aged about 6 to 11.

“They were in the road, running from the nursery,” said Bare Varathan, who owns a shop nearby. “They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,” he said, indicating the neck, back and chest.

Richard Townes, a children’s entertainer from Southport, said parents in texting groups are terrified now to send their children to summer programs.

“I have a 5-year-old daughter who could have just as easily been at the class,” Townes said. “I feel helpless and like I can’t do anything.”

Colin Parry, who owns a nearby auto body shop, told The Guardian that the suspect arrived by taxi.

“He came down our driveway in a taxi and didn’t pay for the taxi, so I confronted him at that point,” Parry was quoted as saying. “He was quite aggressive, he said, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’”

Parry said most of the victims appeared to be young girls.

“It is like a scene from a horror movie. ... It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport,” he said.

Britain’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot 16 kindergartners and their teacher dead in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The U.K. subsequently banned the private ownership of almost all handguns.

Mass shootings and killings with firearms are exceptionally rare in Britain, where knives were used in about 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 one-on-one and personal — either domestic violence or gang related — so this tragedy is very unusual and, accordingly, garners lots of media interest,” Overton said. “This offers no comfort to the grieving families, of course.”

Several attacks in recent years have generated outrage and received a tremendous amount of attention:

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

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

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

Lawless and Melley write for the Associated Press.