Locals were repairing wrecked streets with brushes and shovels on Wednesday morning, after violent protests that saw bricks, stones and bottles hurled at police and cars set alight.
Dozens of residents rallied together outside Southport mosque following the unrest the unrest on Tuesday evening.
It led to 27 police officers taken to hospital and a further 12 treated at the scene, according to the North West Ambulance Service, which also noted that police dogs were injured.
The violence came as mourners gathered in the seaside town of Southport for a vigil in honour of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, who were all fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on Monday.
The chaos caused destruction, including to cars and saw stores looted.
Norman Wallis, chief executive of Southport Pleasureland, said people had travelled from out of town to wreak havoc, leaving locals to clean up the mess.
Southport mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein said: “I would like to thank the police very, very, very much indeed.
“I’m very sorry for the causalities that the police took. They took a very bad beating. I would love to make it better but there’s nothing I can do about it.
“But I would like to thank them for their support because at one point we thought they [the rioters] were coming in and they were going to burn the place down.”
Mr Hussein said the Muslim community still felt vulnerable and that the mosque was open, adding: “I will pray for the whole of Southport, I will pray for the victims of the awful attack on Monday, I will pray for the police and I will pray for the whole community to stay as beautiful as it has always been.”
He described the attack on the dance class as “absolutely heartbreaking”.
Locals have brought flowers to the mosque and are helping organise repairs to the building, which Mr Hussein said was “humbling”.
The Southport community has also been rallying around a shop owner whose store was looted during the disorder on Tuesday night, he said.
Chanaka Balasuryla said he called 999 after spotting men trying to smash their way in on the CCTV camera from his home five minutes away.
He was “terrified” when he thought they would set fire to the premises because there is a woman and her daughter living in a flat above.
He added he later found out that the woman confronted the raiders, telling them it was her shop in an attempt to stop them.
“I got a couple of hours’ sleep and then got a phone call saying ‘You need to come down, there’s lots of people waiting to help’,” Mr Balasuryla said.
“It was terrifying last night [but] I feel safe again because people are here to protect us.”
Even children have been involved in repairing the streets by sweeping the debris away. Locals have come together as they hope to restore a sense of community.
This report brought tears to my eyes: the people of Southport: children, locals sweeping up around the mosque, shaking hands with mosque members, bringing balm after far right vandalism and riots. They are a stick in the eye of those seeking division. This is what community is. pic.twitter.com/DrqkzMoUXZ
— Remona Aly (@RemonaAly) July 31, 2024
Volunteers came out to the junction of Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road partly in response to a social media plea Mr Wallis put out.
He said: “It’s horrendous what those hooligans have done last night.
“It was like a war scene. People from out of town just causing absolute mayhem.
“People in hoods climbing up lampposts, throwing bricks, they set a police car on fire.
“But none of those people were the people of Southport. The people of Southport are the ones here today cleaning the mess up.
“Those people from out of town – they came in in buses and cars and had a change of clothes. They just started to riot and do this.”
Merseyside Police said “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began to throw items such as bricks towards the mosque in the seaside town at about 7.45pm.
Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf called for the EDL to be banned under terror laws in the wake of the unrest, despite former leader Tommy Robinson’s insistence that the group no longer exists.
Officers put on helmets and riot gear after stones and bottles were launched at them and police vehicles were damaged and set on fire.
In a post on social media, the force said shops had been “broken into and looted”, adding that “those responsible will be brought to justice”.
Elsie’s mother, Jenni Stancombe, wrote on Facebook: “This is the only thing that I will write, but please please stop the violence in Southport tonight.
“The police have been nothing but heroic these last 24 hours and they and we don’t need this.”
The troubling scenes saw 27 officers taken to hospital, with 12 others being treated and discharged at the scene, North West Ambulance Service said.
Merseyside Police said eight officers suffered serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion.
Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said the officers injured in Tuesday’s protests will “now be unavailable for duty in what is an incredibly busy time for the force”.
Videos posted on social media showed people throwing wheelie bins and bricks at officers who held riot shields to push the crowds back.
The chairman of Merseyside Police Federation, Chris McGlade, said more than 50 officers had been hurt in a “sustained and vicious attack”.
He added: “Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands, wives and partners.
“We should be going home at the end of our shifts. Not to hospital.”
The violent protests followed hundreds of people taking part in a peaceful vigil for the stabbing victims outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, with many in tears as they laid flowers and cards of remembrance.
As well as the three children who died, eight other youngsters suffered stab wounds and five are in a critical condition, alongside two adults who were also critically injured, police said.
The vigil was followed by the protest outside the mosque as demonstrators chanted far-right slogans and clashed with police in St Luke’s Road.
Southport MP Patrick Hurley, speaking on Wednesday, said rioters must face the “full force of the law”, saying they were “utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children”.
He condemned “beered-up thugs” who threw bricks, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Even if this lad, the 17-year-old, turns out to be Muslim, under no circumstances does that justify any attack on a mosque by anybody at all.”
False claims had spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said rioters had “hijacked” a vigil for victims and will “feel the full force of the law”, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the rioting as “violent attacks from thugs on the streets”, which she branded “appalling”.
The suspect, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, is from the village of Banks, just outside Southport, and a road in the area was cordoned off by detectives on Monday afternoon.
Police have said that although the motive for the attack is unclear, it is not believed to be terror-related.
A 32-year-old man from Standish was arrested on suspicion of possession of a flick knife in Eastbank Street, near where the vigil took place on Tuesday evening.
He was taken into custody and there were no reports that anyone was injured during the incident, Merseyside Police said.
