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Rioters attacked a mosque on Tuesday night in the seaside town of Southport in north-west England, and hurled projectiles at police, shortly after residents had gathered at a vigil for three girls killed in a mass stabbing.
Merseyside Police said they believed the far-right English Defence League, founded by Tommy Robinson, had instigated the riots, which resulted in at least one policeman being injured and a police van set alight.
The chaos followed a peaceful vigil by hundreds of local residents who had come together nearby to mourn the three girls aged six, seven and nine, who died in the stabbing incident on Monday. It was one of the worst mass casualty attacks involving children in the UK in decades.
A statement from Merseyside Police said a large group of people “believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” had gathered outside a local mosque and threw bottles and wheelie bins at police officers attempting to keep the peace.
The violence in Southport, north of Liverpool, was sufficiently serious that assistance was drafted in from police forces in neighbouring counties.
Merseyside assistant chief constable Alex Goss said: “It is sickening to see this happening within a community that has been devastated by the tragic loss of three young lives.
“In the last 24 hours, we have seen overwhelming support and sympathy from the community . . . for the families who are currently trying to deal with their loss and care for victims injured during the major incident.”
There has been a torrent of Islamaphobic and anti-migrant misinformation online since the death of two girls on Monday, when a teenager attacked a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at a property on a residential Southport street.
A third girl died in hospital on Tuesday, and eight others, mostly children, were injured in the attack, with some of them still in critical condition.
A 17-year-old male from nearby Banks in Lancashire, but originally from Cardiff in South Wales, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
Earlier on Tuesday, Merseyside police had responded to the circulation online of a fake, Muslim-sounding name in connection with the attack — and speculation that the suspect had arrived in the UK recently by small boat — saying it was incorrect.
Addressing parliament on Tuesday, home secretary Yvette Cooper said that misinformation had spread online about the identity of the attacker and warned “those who do this for their own purposes risk undermining a crucial criminal investigation”.
She said later in a statement about the riots: “These disgraceful scenes of violence and disorder we are witnessing this evening, with attacks on the Merseyside Police and a local mosque, are completely appalling. Those responsible will face the full force of the law.”
Sir Keir Starmer, prime minister, visited the scene of the stabbings, saying that the families of the victims must be experiencing “raw pain and grief that most of us can’t imagine”.
He added he did not think anyone in the country was “untouched” by what had happened and thanked emergency service workers for their role in apprehending the suspect and rushing the injured to hospital.
The attack on Monday was the worst to have targeted children in the UK since 1996, when a 43-year-old man shot dead 16 pupils as well as a teacher in a mass shooting at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. The Dunblane incident remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
Police said the motives of the Southport suspect, who walked into the property where the dance class was taking place, remained “unclear”.
Two adults remained in a critical condition having sustained injuries while attempting to defend the children, police added.
Taylor Swift said in a post on Instagram that the horror of the attack was “washing over” her continuously.
“These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families,” she wrote.
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