Southport has 'mixed emotions' as disorder follows attack

Rev Kent said memorial services were taking place in churches across Southport

Southport is experiencing "mixed emotions" after violent disorder followed the deaths of three girls in a knife attack, a vicar has said.

Reverend Marie-Anne Kent, of St Philip and St Paul with Wesley Church in Southport, said services took place across the town earlier to remember Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King and support those affected by Monday's attack.

However, she said while the focus should be on the "families and young people who have been traumatised... we've been overtaken by the violence".

She said that as a result, there were "a lot of mixed emotions around", such as anxiety, fear, numbness and grief, adding: "We need to be together at a time like this."

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, died in the attack

Alice, nine, Elsie, seven, and Bebe, six, were killed in the stabbings during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday, and eight other children and two adults were seriously injured.

Violence erupted the following evening in the Merseyside seaside town, with police blaming far-right groups, and it has since spread to other towns and cities across England.

False claims have spread online that the person responsible was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat and a Muslim.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, has been charged with three counts of murder, 10 attempted murders and possession of a curved kitchen knife.

The 17-year-old, who was born to Rwandan parents in Cardiff and moved to the Southport area in 2013, has no known links to Islam.

Bouquets, balloons and plants have been left in Southport town centre in tribute to the victims of the attack

Rev Kent's church stands close to the yoga studio where the attack took place.

She said there was a "strong community feeling that we're bigger than all of this and we will build a better world for our young people as they grow up".

She said she had seen "so many acts of kindness" take place since the attack and churches across the town were "committing ourselves to work for peace [and] reconciliation in our communities".

"Southport has really pulled together," she said.

"Every act of kindness is saying we are against this hate, these acts of violence."

On Friday, buildings across Southport and north-west England were lit pink in memory of the victims of the attack.

Sefton Council leader Marion Atkinson said it was done as a display of "moving unity".

She added that people would "continue to stand united for all of those families who are currently trying to deal with their unimaginable loss and care for victims injured".