EXPLAINER
A 17-year-old suspect is in police custody after a UK knife assault kills three youngsters and injures 10.
Three youngsters have been killed in a stabbing throughout a dance class in Southport, a seaside city in northwest England. Ten individuals have been injured, and a younger male suspect has been arrested by the police.
Right here’s what we all know to date:
What occurred and when?
- At 11:47am (10:47 GMT) on Monday, a knife assault occurred at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop at a yoga studio for youngsters.
- In keeping with social media posts by the studio internet hosting the occasion, the category was for youngsters aged six to 11.
- The occasion was meant to final from 10am to midday and was run by two girls, a yoga teacher and a dance teacher.
The place is Southport?
- Southport is a seaside city 32km (20 miles) north of Liverpool. It’s house to about 100,000 individuals.
- The incident occurred on Hart Avenue in Southport.
- Each Southport and Liverpool are a part of Merseyside county.
What do we all know concerning the victims?
- Three youngsters have been killed. Two of them, aged six and 7 years, died on Monday. The third, a lady aged 9 years, died Tuesday morning because of accidents sustained through the knife assault, Merseyside Police stated in an announcement.
- Eight different youngsters have been injured. 5 of them are in essential situation.
- Two adults have been additionally injured whereas attempting to guard the youngsters and are in essential situation, in accordance with the police.
What do we all know concerning the suspect?
- A press release launched by the Merseyside Police on Monday stated the suspect is 17 and from Banks, Lancashire, about 8km (5 miles) from the location of the assault.
- He has been arrested on suspicion of homicide and tried homicide, stated the assertion, quoting Chief Constable Serena Kennedy.
- The suspect was born in Cardiff, the capital and largest metropolis of Wales. The assertion added that the suspect has been taken to a police station the place he will probably be investigated by detectives. No additional particulars of the suspect have been revealed to date.
- Whereas the suspect’s motives stay unclear, Merseyside Police stated on Tuesday that the “incident just isn’t at present being handled as terror-related and we’re not searching for anybody else in reference to it”.
How have UK authorities reacted?
- The North West Ambulance Service stated it transported the victims to Alder Hey Youngsters’s Hospital, Aintree College Hospital and Southport and Formby District Basic Hospital after dispatching “13 ambulances together with specialised sources”.
- Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper is in Southport on Tuesday morning and is slated to fulfill group leaders in addition to Kennedy and Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell.
- King Charles III stated the assault was “actually appalling” and supplied condolences and prayers for the victims.
- “Horrendous and deeply stunning information rising from Southport,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated on X. Previous to his current election, Starmer had promised to work in direction of curbing knife assaults in the UK.
Horrendous and deeply stunning information rising from Southport. My ideas are with all these affected.
I wish to thank the police and emergency companies for his or her swift response.
I’m being saved up to date because the state of affairs develops.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 29, 2024
Is knife crime on the rise within the UK?
- The UK strictly regulates gun possession. The Nationwide Crime Company reported that ranges of firearm crimes within the UK stay among the many lowest globally. The 12 months ending in March 2021 noticed the bottom stage of gun violence in at the least 5 years.
- The US noticed 4.31 deaths from gun violence per 100,000 individuals in 2021 whereas the UK had 0.013 deaths per 100,000, in accordance with the College of Washington’s Institute for Well being Metrics and Analysis.
- Knife crimes, however, are widespread within the UK.
- For a decade main as much as 2023, 38 p.c of murder circumstances concerned a pointy object, in accordance with the Home of Commons Library.
- In keeping with a report printed by the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics, “knife-enabled crime recorded by the police within the 12 months ending September 2023 elevated by 5 p.c in contrast with the 12 months ending September 2022”.
- Nonetheless, the statistics for knife crimes have been nonetheless decrease than they have been earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Stabbing incidents have sporadically occurred in Southport. On Sunday, 38-year-old Mark Henderson was arrested for tried homicide after an 18-year-old transgender girl was stabbed. The sufferer is in secure situation.
- In April, the Merseyside Police arrested three suspects from Southport in connection to a stabbing that occurred within the metropolis on March 29. They have been a 17-year-old boy; a person, 25; and a girl, 51.
What’s the most recent from Southport?
- The location of the assault is cordoned off by the police, and folks have been laying flowers for the victims on a avenue that has now gone quiet.
- In an X put up on Monday, Merseyside Police stated, “There isn’t any wider risk to the general public.”
- A vigil will probably be held on Tuesday night, the BBC quoted the Labour MP for Southport, Patrick Hurley, as saying.
- Taylor Swift reacted to the lethal assault with an announcement on Instagram. “The horror of yesterday’s assault in Southport is washing over me repeatedly and I’m simply fully in shock,” Swift wrote on Tuesday. “These have been simply little youngsters at a dance class. I’m at a whole loss for find out how to ever convey my sympathies to those households.”
