LONDON — Taylor Swift said Tuesday that she was “completely in shock” after three children were killed at a dance workshop celebrating her music in a small British seaside town.
Eight other children were injured, five of them critically, in what police called a “ferocious” knife attack Monday in Southport, a seaside town in northwest England near Liverpool. On Tuesday, authorities announced the third child had died.
Merseyside Police named three of the victims as Bebe King, 6; Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7; and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9. Two adults were critically injured as they tried to defend the children, the force said.
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock,” Swift said in an Instagram Live post.
“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she added. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Shortly afterward, Bebe’s and Alice’s families paid tribute to the little girls in a statement released by police.
“No words can describe the devastation that has hit our family as try to deal with the loss of our little girl Bebe,” Bebe’s family said. Alice’s family said: “Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our Princess, like we said before to you, you’re always our princess and no one would change that.
People left flowers and stuffed animals in tribute at a police cordon near where the incident took place in the town, which is famed for its beach and pier.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the seaside town Tuesday and thanked emergency service workers. Laying down a wreath, he stood momentarily in silence.
Later there was also a protest outside a mosque in Southport and police were attacked by a crowd of men, many of whom were wearing masks and hoodies. Some chanted far-right slogans, and stones and bottles were thrown at officers who put on helmets and riot gear.
Police said a 17-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the attack. Investigators said he was from the nearby village of Banks but did not offer a motive. However, they said that the attack was not being treated as terrorism-related and that no one else was believed to be connected.
Under the United Kingdom’s law, the identities of children ages 10 to 17 charged with crimes are not disclosed outside court.
Shortly after the incident, Colin Parry, who owns the business next to the community center that was hosting the children’s event, told the British broadcaster Sky News that one of his colleagues called him and told him to get outside, where he witnessed utter horror.
“It was definitely intentional. It wasn’t once. It was several times he stabbed these kids,” he said. (Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.)
King Charles III was among those to also express horror at the attack, saying Monday that he and Queen Camilla were “profoundly shocked to hear of the utterly horrific incident in Southport” and offering their “most heartfelt condolences” to the families.
A Just Giving online fundraiser called “Swifties for Southport” had raised more than £100,000, or around $128,500, as of Tuesday for the grieving families.
The U.K.’s worst attack on children occurred in 1996, when a 43-year-old man fatally shot 16 kindergartners and their teacher 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 rare in Britain, where knives were used in about 40% of homicides in the year that ended March 2023.
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