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Footage has emerged of a person pacing outside a house later raided by armed police after three children were killed in a stabbing at a dance class in Southport.
Doorbell camera video appears to show the individual, dressed in a green hoody and face mask, circling the front door of a property just a 15 minute drive from Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop, where three children were fatally stabbed and five other youngsters critically injured.
ITV, who obtained the footage, reported locals saw police raid the same house around two hours later.
A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder following the incident in Hart Street, Southport, on Monday, Merseyside Police said.
Police said the suspect, who was born in Cardiff, is from the village of Banks, just outside Southport, and a road in the area was cordoned off by detectives on Monday afternoon.
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Two hero class teachers are also fighting for their lives in hospital after bravely trying to defend youngsters from the attack shortly before midday on Monday.
One has been named locally as Leanne Lucas, 35, who is said to have worked with a colleague to help shield up to 16 innocent children from the onslaught
The Daily Telegraph also reported that businessman Jonathan Hayes was stabbed in the leg after attempting to disarm the attacker.
Asked if her husband had tried to put himself between the suspect and the children, his wife, Helen, told the newspaper: “He did. He heard screams.
“Our office is in the same building as the dance studio, he heard screams and went outside, saw the attacker, saw that he had hurt a child and tried to take the knife off him and got stabbed in the leg.”
She said she had been with her husband all afternoon at the hospital and added: “He’s very upset that he wasn’t able to be more help. Physically he will be OK, mentally I don’t know.”
A local resident has told of a parent of one of the wounded children pulling up outside their house with their child and screaming “help my child’s been stabbed my child’s been stabbed”.
Sarah, 45, told The Independent: “A parent had an injured child in the car and pulled up outside our house. She got a call from a medic. She was in distress. My husband helped her back to the scene. We’re hoping the child is okay.”
She added: “She stopped and was just saying, ‘Help, my child’s been stabbed, my child’s been stabbed.’”
