Two children have died following a knife attack in northwest England, police said on Monday, adding they had arrested a 17-year-old male on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
Nine other children were injured, six of them critically and two adults were also in a critical condition.
Merseyside Police said officers were called at about noon on Monday to an address in Southport, near Liverpool. It said “there are a number of reported casualties” and called it a “major incident.”
Police also said motivation for the incident was unclear but it was not being treated as terrorism-related and they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the stabbings.
The police force said officers arrested a man and seized a knife. The force said there is no wider threat to the public but asked people to avoid the area. Photos showed several police cars, ambulances and a fire engine behind cordon tape on a residential street.
The North West Ambulance Service confirmed it was “attending a major incident on Hart Street, Southport, following reports of multiple stabbings in which we have dispatched multiple resources.”
“We’re attending a major incident on Hart Street, Southport following reports of multiple stabbings in which we have dispatched multiple resources. We’re assessing the situation and working with emergency partners,” the NWAS said in a statement.
Speaking to UK’s Liverpool-based news outlet Liverpool Echo, a resident who lives on Hart Street, located minutes away from the place of the incident, said she heard sirens and then a helicopter circling around the area midday Monday.
“Then the messages started to go around the local WhatsApp groups, saying ‘lock your windows, lock your doors’, we were told a man was running around stabbing people,” the woman told the outlet.
“We are all absolutely terrified, panicking and sick with worry – everyone is trying to reach anyone they know in the area. I don’t know how this can happen on a Monday lunchtime,” she further added.
Local business owner Colin Parry, one of the people who called police, told the domestic Press Association news agency that he believed several “young girls” had been stabbed.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “horrendous and deeply shocking,” adding on X, formerly called Twitter, that “my thoughts are with all those affected.”
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