LONDON — A stabbing Monday at a youngsters’s dance class in northwest England killed two youngsters and wounded 11 different folks, police mentioned, and officers arrested a 17-year-old boy and seized a knife after the bloody rampage.

9 youngsters and two adults have been wounded within the assault in Southport, a seaside city close to Liverpool, Merseyside Police mentioned. Six youngsters and each adults have been in essential situation.

Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy mentioned the wounded adults had “bravely” tried to guard the youngsters throughout the “ferocious” assault.

“The offender, who was armed with a knife, walked into the premises and began to assault these inside,” Kennedy mentioned. “We imagine that the adults who have been injured have been making an attempt to guard the youngsters on the time they have been attacked.”

A witness described seeing bloodied youngsters operating from the category that was held for kids aged about 6 to 11 on the primary day of summer season faculty trip. An commercial for the occasion promised “a morning of Taylor Swift-themed yoga, dance and bracelet making.”

Kennedy mentioned the motive for the assault is unclear. Police mentioned earlier that detectives weren’t treating the assault as terror-related.

Naked Varathan, who owns a store close by, mentioned he noticed at the least seven youngsters injured and bleeding exterior a nursery.

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“They have been within the highway, operating from the nursery,” Varathan mentioned. “They’d been stabbed, right here, right here, right here, in all places,” he mentioned indicating neck, again and chest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer known as the assault “horrendous and deeply surprising.”

Merseyside Police mentioned officers have been known as at about midday to an deal with in Southport, a seaside city of about 100,000 folks close to Liverpool. It known as it a “main incident” however mentioned there was no wider menace to the general public.

The suspect, who has not been recognized, lived in a village about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the positioning of the assault, police mentioned.

King Charles III mentioned in a message on X, “My spouse and I’ve been profoundly shocked to listen to of the totally horrific incident in Southport immediately. We ship our most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies to the households and family members of those that have so tragically misplaced their lives, and to all these affected by this really appalling assault.”

Ryan Carney, who lives along with his mom on the street, mentioned his mom noticed emergency staff carrying youngsters “coated in purple, coated in blood. She mentioned she may see the stab wounds within the backs of the youngsters.”

“All these things by no means actually occurs round right here,” he mentioned. “You hear of it, stabbings and stuff like that in main cities, your Manchesters, your Londons. That is sunny Southport. That is what folks name it. The solar’s out. It is a beautiful place to be.”

Britain’s worst assault on youngsters occurred in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot 16 kindergarten pupils and their trainer useless in a faculty gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The U.Ok. subsequently banned the personal possession of just about all handguns.

Mass shootings and murders with firearms are uncommon in Britain, the place knives have been utilized in about 40% of homicides within the 12 months to March 2023. A number of headline-grabbing assaults and a current rise in knife crime have stoked anxieties and led to requires the federal government to do extra to clamp down on bladed weapons.