Afternoon summary
Four people have been arrested in connection with the violent protests that broke out last night in Southport following a vigil for the victims of Monday’s knife attack, police said. The Merseyside chief constable, Serena Kennedy, said more arrests will follow.
Of the 53 police officers injured, 49 were said to be Merseyside police officers and four were from Lancashire constabulary.
Merseyside police said eight officers sustained serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion and were treated in hospital.
Local residents said rioters attacked a mosque and used bricks as missiles last night. Many helped with the clean-up operation throughout the day to repair the damage caused by the disorder.
Southport’s MP, Patrick Hurley, said the violent rioters were not local to the area and must face the “full force of the law”. He said the riots occurred because of the “propaganda and lies” spread on social media about the identity of the attacker. “These people are utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children and utterly disrespecting the town,” the MP told the BBC.
Police believe those involved in the violent unrest included supporters of the English Defence League (EDL).
Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, called for the EDL to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after the riots.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were all fatally stabbed in Southport on Monday. Jenni Stancombe, Elsie’s mother, 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.”
A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons because of his age, remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder. The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
Police have said that, although the motive for the attack was unclear, it was not believed to be terror-related. On Wednesday, detectives were granted more time to question the teenager.
We are now pausing this blog but my colleague, Jamie Grierson, has done a useful explainer about everything we know so far about Monday’s knife attack. You can read it here.
Updated
Four arrests made after Southport riot, police say in update
Merseyside police have just released an update saying a total of four men have been arrested and taken into custody following last night’s riots.
A 31-year-old man from St Helens was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder
A 31-year-old man from West Derby, Liverpool was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder
A 39-year-old man from Southport was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder
A 32-year-old man from Manchester with a probation address in Southport was arrested on suspicion of affray and possession of a bladed article.
In a statement, the police said:
The offenders destroyed garden walls to use the bricks as missiles to attack officers and set cars belonging to the public on fire at random. Those involved also threw bricks at the local mosque, damaged a local convenience store, and set wheelie bins on fire.
As we have been reporting throughout the day, volunteers have been trying to repair some of the damaged caused by the riot last night, with many people sweeping streets and rebuilding walls in the clean up effort. Here is a video of members of the Southport community coming together to clean up the streets:
Police say three arrests made in connection with Southport riot and that 'more will follow'
The chief constable of Merseyside Police, Serena Kennedy, said three arrests have been made in connection with last night’s riots in Southport and that “more will follow”, BBC News reports.
“It’s impossible to say [how many will be arrested]. It’s really early days in the investigation,” she told reporters, estimating that about 200 to 300 people were involved in the disorder.
Kennedy added:
Initially, there were about 70 people who made their way away from the vigil and were making their way towards the mosque.
They suddenly became about 200 in number and then others joined that number.
Updated
The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
But on Tuesday night a protest by hundreds of far-right activists, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, saw missiles thrown at police and a local mosque attacked.
The incident became the latest to raise questions about the policing of content by social media companies, and official watchdogs, and whether the law is fit is for purpose.
A prominent British conspiracy theorist had earlier been filming at the crime scene. A YouTube video where he calls for emergency military rule and mass deportations received 30,000 views in the two hours after it was posted on Tuesday.
The ‘“source’” for the false name of the attacker appears to be a website seen by the Guardian calling itself Channel 3 Now, which mixes potentially AI-generated US and UK news content and is styled like a mainstream American network news channel. It did not reply to requests for comment from the Guardian or provide details of who owns or runs it.
The name and other false claims about the suspect were being shared by influencers on platforms such as TikTok. One such video, also seen by the Guardian, from a self-styled social media influencer and Reform UK supporter who goes by the name of brucesrandomness, had been viewed nearly 800,000 times.
The same influencer posted a subsequent video in which he apologised for “probably incorrectly” naming the suspect after seeing “some headlines over the internet” and acting out of anger. He has been approached for comment, as has TikTok.
However, more established far-right actors and disseminators of conspiracy theories who found new supporters during the Covid-19 pandemic have been quick to seize on the attack.
You can read the full report by my colleague, Ben Quinn, here:
The PA news agency has explained why the identity of the teenager arrested over the Southport stabbings has not been made public. It reports:
Detectives have been given more time to question the 17-year-old over the incident and he remains in custody after being detained on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. No charges have been brought.
At this stage, the boy has not been identified because of his age amid active ongoing criminal proceedings.
The criminal age of responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old, meaning children aged between 10 and 17 can be arrested and taken to court if they commit a crime.
The identity of defendants and witnesses under the age of 18 who are subject to criminal proceedings in youth courts is protected by automatic reporting restrictions under Section 49 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
If a child is charged with an offence and is facing criminal proceedings in adult courts - magistrates’ and crown courts - then magistrates and judges have legal powers to grant anonymity to a child defendant, witness or victim under Section 45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.
Both of these laws ban the press from publishing a child defendant’s name or any detail which could lead to them being identified while the reporting restrictions remain in place.
This is why media reports sometimes say they cannot identify a child involved in a criminal court case for legal reasons.
The automatic restrictions technically begin once court proceedings are active - when a suspect has been charged and is appearing in court for the first time - which could give rise to questions as to why the teenager in the Southport case has still not been identified.
But media organisations typically refrain from identifying any child arrested on suspicion of a crime, having considered their ethical and other legal responsibilities, because there is the prospect this could then lead to prosecution and court proceedings where the reporting restrictions in question will activate.
Child defendants will remain anonymous throughout legal proceedings but these restrictions can be challenged - usually by reporters - after the court case has ended.
If a child is convicted of a crime, having either pleaded guilty or been found guilty after a trial, magistrates and judges have powers to lift reporting restrictions so the defendant can be identified in some circumstances, including if this is considered in the public interest.
Rioters will feel 'full force of the law', Merseyside chief constable says
Merseyside chief constable Serena Kennedy has said last night’s rioters will feel “the full force of the law”, adding that Merseyside police are “absolutely planning” for this evening and the weekend ahead, with extra support from other forces.
Chris McGlade, chair of Merseyside Police Federation, said this morning that over 50 police officers were injured in the disorder last night.
Kennedy now says 54 were hurt; 49 were from Merseyside police and others were from elsewhere, according to BBC News.
Visiting the scene of Tuesday’s violence, she said this afternoon:
I am absolutely appalled and disgusted at the level of violence that was shown towards my officers.
These are the same officers who have been supporting this community for the last 48 hours. Some of the first responders who attended that awful scene on Monday and then were faced with that level of violence.
Kennedy added: “They were there purely for hooliganism and thuggery.”
Merseyside chief constable Serena Kennedy said that she was 'disgusted and appalled' by the violence that broke out last night, adding that the rioters were there 'purely for hooliganism and thuggery'.https://t.co/SDBIHBvmOj pic.twitter.com/ZaeH5tu0kJ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 31, 2024
Updated
Metro mayor of Liverpool Steve Rotheram said he had heard the opinion that protests began because of a “wall of silence” about what had happened.
He said:
Let’s be absolutely brutal and honest - what are those questions that remain unanswered?
Well, the name of the individual. That’s because of legal reasons, that person’s 17.
The one that social media wants to find out is the religion of that person. So you have to ask yourself the questions, why would anybody want to know the religion of the perpetrator of this vicious and heinous crime?
And it’s to do exactly what we just talked about earlier, which is to stir up more tension in this community.
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Southport from the newswires:
Josh Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England editor, has been speaking to local people in Southport in the aftermath of the riots last night.
Carol Hignett, 73, who lives opposite the Windsor mini-mart that was looted by rioters while some threw firebombs at police, said the street “looked like bloody Beirut first thing this morning”.
“I’ve lived in Southport all my life and I have never, ever come across what went on last night,” she said from her front garden.
Rioters had kicked down a garden wall outside the house of her next door neighbour, Carl Potter, 48, and searched through his shed for projectiles.
Hignett said: “What went on last night has not helped them families [of the victims] in any way. They’ve got enough to deal with.
“It’s normally a quiet road. You’ve got to be shaken up because nothing like this has ever happened before.” She said of the rioters: “Nobody’s on their side.”
Hignett said she saw masked rioters hiding in residents’ gardens and changing their clothing in case they had been caught on camera.
Potter said:
Whoever organised that yesterday - they’re not from Southport. They can’t be. The community around here have really stepped up. People have been saying they will do free brickworks and help rebuild.
In that way, it’s good. It’s people coming together. But it shouldn’t take that to happen. My heart’s still with what happened Monday. What happened down Hart Street has hit everybody hard.
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, said the government must come down “hard and fast” on rioters and online misinformation following disorder in Southport yesterday evening.
The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
But on Tuesday night a protest by hundreds of far-right activists, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, saw missiles thrown at police and a local mosque attacked.
Cleverly said on Wednesday:
The violence we have seen in Southport is an insult to the memory of the victims of this heinous attack.
These are not protesters fighting injustice, they are thugs fighting the police, tearing up a community that is already trying to process an unimaginable horror. They must be met with the full force of the law.
People will understandably want to know how and why something so awful could have happened, but getting the right answers will take time.
While we give the police space and time to do their job, we must have no truck with those spreading disinformation and fuelling conspiracy.
The police, the home secretary and the government must come down on this hard and fast.
As home secretary I took a clear and firm stance on protesters and civil disorder, and went to America to ensure the tech companies properly understood that the UK government expected them to step up to stop the spread of disinformation. They must do so now. We all have a duty to honour truth, respect our police, and check before we share.
Home secretary will be 'looking at' whether the EDL should be proscribed as terror group, Angela Rayner suggests
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, will “be looking at” whether the English Defence League (EDL) should be proscribed under terrorism laws following the riot in Southport, Angela Rayner has suggested, according to the PA news agency.
Rayner, the deputy prime minister, was quoted as having said:
We have laws and we have proscribed groups and we do look at that and it is reviewed regularly. So I’m sure that that will be something that the home secretary will be looking at as part of the normal course of what we do and the intelligence that we have.
But I think the bigger issue is about taking on the minority of people that have got thuggish behaviour, that actually that’s not our British values…
The inciting of violence and violence on the street has absolutely no place in our democracy, and we have to crack down on those that perpetuate violence and spread it within our communities.
Following Rayner’s comment, Cooper was asked whether she is looking at proscribing the EDL or Tommy Robinson-linked groups but her spokesperson declined to comment,
saying they never say which organisations are under consideration or a ban.
It comes after Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s former first minister, called for the EDL, a far-right, Islamophobic group founded in 2009 by Robinson, to be proscribed under terrorism laws following the riot (see post at 11.17 for more details).
In a letter to Cooper, Yousaf claimed “Britain has a far-Right problem”, urging her to use anti-terrorism powers to make membership of the group illegal.
Updated
This report is from our north of England editor, Josh Halliday, who has been at the scene in Southport.
Local residents had shown their support for Southport mosque by bringing flowers, candles and treats including medjoul dates, maltesers and donuts for the worshippers outside the damaged building.
Bricks were thrown through the window of the grand mosque and a car parked outside had its windscreen smashed when disorder broke out on Tuesday night.
The mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein told the Guardian how he had been “barricaded” inside the building with eight worshippers when hundreds of rioters descended on the mosque.
He said: “It really was terrifying and it was uncalled for. There was no reason for it whatsoever. We just have to keep on going, there’s nothing else we can do”.
Hussein said he watched the riot unfold: “I can’t describe it really. It was awful - not very nice”. “There was fire going on. The heat was coming through the window. If you go in the office today, after all this time, the smell of smoke is still around”.
He added: “The community are wonderful. Whoever did this was outside of Southport. They are not part of Southport at all. This is not the character of the people of Southport.
“Southport people are like you see in front of you here,” he said, gesturing to the flowers, food and soft drinks that had been donated just hours after the riot.
“They are beautiful people. They support us and we support them and we love each other and we’ve been living in harmony for 30 years, so it’s not going to change now just because a few idiots have put something on social media”.
Neha Gohil is community affairs correspondent at the Guardian
A resident who has always lived in Southport but did not want to be named described the riots as an “insult to the families of all affected”.
“I have attended the mosque since it opened about 30 years ago…I was saddened, for a town in grief from what happened on Monday. It was an insult to the families of all affected and the Southport community as a whole.
“As a collective we are all grieving as a consequence of what happened on Monday…My overriding feeling is sympathy for all the families affected by Monday and a community in mourning.”
Here are some more quotes from Southport mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein, who said earlier that he was trapped in the mosque with about eight others as the violence erupted in Southport last night (see post at 12.21 for more details).
He said at one point he believed the rioters would break into the sacred building.
Hussein said: “We don’t know why we are the focus of these people who came round throwing abuse and throwing missiles and throwing bricks. We don’t know why we’re being targeted in that way.”
He said he understood why the 17-year-old arrested over the deaths of the three children on Monday had yet to be named, adding: “It’s not for me to say what the police should or shouldn’t do.”
Hussein added:
But it would have been helpful if they (the police) had said that he is not Muslim. I would love them to do that. Not that that it makes a big difference because, even if he is a Muslim, why should that reflect on the whole community?
Updated
Here’s a map of the Southport incidents.
Surya, who commutes to Southport for work and regularly prays at the mosque at lunchtime, said she felt “completely disgusted” by the riots that took place last night.
“I know people are upset, but to take out on a mosque, without even knowing the facts, it’s not going to solve any problems. Even if it was a Muslim, it’s not the way to sort of deal with issues.”
Surya, who did not want to include her last name, added: “So there were people trapped inside. And then it looked like hundreds of people outside throwing bricks and so on. And police getting injured.
“I was disgusted, really. I do understand why people are upset and a peaceful protest perhaps but not this spilling out into violence. From what I know of Southport, they’re just lovely welcoming people so I don’t think they were from Southport myself.
“For me personally, I’m thinking, do I want to go out there and pray there? I feel a bit reticent now…I have always felt safe in Southport, always. And I don’t think this is going to change it. As I say, I do feel a bit reticent now about going down to the mosque.”
Ibrahim Syed, coordinator at the Liverpool Region Mosque Network, said he was aware that three people were inside the mosque during the riots, including the Imam.
“It’s just really distressing… it was just scary because there’s mosques all throughout the region and we are all vulnerable targets, aren’t we, if we’re going to be attacked in this way?”
Speaking about the impact on members of the mosque, Syed said: “I think they’re obviously quite shaken up by what’s happened. But then also [they] just want to get on with their lives and just put the mosque to rights and don’t want too much attention.”
Locals have gathered to help rebuild a wall outside the mosque that was attacked. Syed described this as “fantastic.”
“I think you can see that the people are a minority, who seek to divide us. The far right activists, many of them are out of town. But what you’ve seen this morning, there’s been people, local, who’ve come together to rebuild the wall. And there’s images that show messages of solidarity.”
He added:
The main thing is that we give out the right message that Islam has no connection to anything like this or any sort of violence like this. And those who try to associate these sorts of actions, whatever their political view to Islam and to Muslims, are wrong and frankly are liars trying to promote their kind of political agenda.
Responding to the spread of fake news related to the name of the perpetrator, Syed said: “It’s scary isn’t it?…You’ve got people like Tommy Robinson, you’ve got people like Katie Hopkins. If you just go online, you can see the kind of way they spin things. And even when you see people from certain parties, Reform and whatnot, they speak in a way where it captivates people. And I think a lot of people get caught up in their rhetoric. So it is very dangerous.”
Detectives given more time to question suspect
Detectives have been granted more time to question the teenager arrested on suspicion of the Southport knife attacks, PA reports.
The 17-year-old cannot be named for legal reasons. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
Mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein said he was trapped in the mosque with about eight others as the violence erupted, and only escaped with a police guard, PA reported.
Hussein said:
It was terrifying. It was absolutely, awful, horrendous. We couldn’t understand this viciousness that was going on.
PA reports that locals have brought flowers to the mosque and are helping organise repairs to the building, which Mr Hussein said was “humbling”.
“I know the people of Southport and I know how beautiful they are but this was still a moving experience to see all that,” he said.
A local news service based in Southport, On The Spot News, is reporting that “100 members of the community are repairing damage to the local mosque, seen here rebuilding a wall.”
This is how Southport responded.
— On The Spot News (@ots_southport) July 31, 2024
A group of around 100 members of the community are repairing damage to the local mosque, seen here rebuilding a wall.
St Luke’s Road, last night strewn with rubble and debris, has already been cleared. pic.twitter.com/NOZ0JAKdsp
Summary of the day so far...
50 police officers were injured during violent protests following a vigil for the victims of Monday’s knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club, Merseyside Police Federation said.
Local residents said rioters attacked a mosque and used bricks as missiles last night. Many helped with the clean-up operation this morning to repair the damage caused by the disorder.
Southport’s MP, Patrick Hurley, said the violent rioters were not local to the area and must face the “full force of the law”. He said the riots occurred because of the “propaganda and lies” spread on social media about the identity of the attacker. “These people are utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children and utterly disrespecting the town,” the MP told the BBC.
Merseyside police confirmed that eight officers suffered serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and a concussion.
Police believe those involved in the violent unrest included supporters of the English Defence League (EDL).
Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, has called for the EDL to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after the riots.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were all fatally stabbed in Southport on Monday. According to the PA news agency, Jenni Stancombe, Elsie’s mother, 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.”
A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons because of his age, remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder. The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
Police have said that, although the motive for the attack was unclear, it was not believed to be terror-related.
You can read the latest developments on what has happened since the stabbings in this report by my colleague, Caroline Davies.
Updated
Josh Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England editor, has been speaking to local people in Southport in the aftermath of the riots last night.
Residents in Southport have expressed their disgust and dismay after rioters tore down walls and smashed cars while attacking police officers shortly after a peaceful vigil to remember the young victims of Monday’s attack.
The Guardian was told on Wednesday that rioters broke into locals’ sheds, looted a shop and hot-wired a car that was driven at police officers.
Suzanne Jerran, the owner of Windsor mini mart, said she feared for the lives of her tenants when “a mob” broke into her shop and set fire to an industrial bin outside to ram at riot police.
Holding back tears as a huge clean-up operation got underway on Wednesday, she said: “Why are they picking on us? Why are they damaging our town? This is a struggling seaside town as it is. We’ve lost so much to the likes of Liverpool. And now our struggling community is under attack from these yobs that are coming in.
“What did we do to deserve this? We’ve already lost our children. Our community is grieving. How dare they come here to our town and do this? It’s disgusting. It really is disgusting.”
Jerran’s family have owned the shop near Southport mosque since 1993 but leased it out to a Sri Lankan businessman who turned it into a corner shop three years ago.
She said she saw on social media a “huge mob of young lads” outside the shop before her tenant phoned her to say “men with fire were coming into the shop”. They looted all of the cigarettes and many bottles of alcohol, she said.
“My first reaction was to phone the fire brigade to get them to come down because my concern was for loss of life. That was my main concern. You can’t replace that, can you? It’s a human being.”
Jerran said she was concerned “because there’s been adverts on Facebook saying there’s going to be future riots in this town”.
She added: “It certainly wasn’t local people because we don’t do this to each other. You can see yesterday the solidarity that was behind the support that was happening in the town centre, all the tributes that were laid last night, and all the tributes that are laid on the roads behind me for all those poor kids that were injured.”
Updated
Mother of one of the children killed in Southport stabbings condemns riots - reports
The mother of one of the young girls killed in Monday’s knife attack has condemned the violence that broke out in Southport last night, the PA news agency has reported.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed in what police described as a “ferocious attack” during a Taylor Swift themed dance and yoga workshop on Monday.
The PA news agency has now reported that 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.”
Updated
Scotland's former first minister calls for the EDL to be proscribed under terrorism laws
Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf has called for the English Defence League (EDL) to be proscribed under terrorism laws following the riot in Southport.
Merseyside Police have said they believed the group - which threw bricks at a mosque in the seaside town following a knife attack which killed three girls on Monday - was made up of supporters of the EDL.
Yousaf wrote on X:
Violence targeting police officers, the public, and mosques, all to drive forward the far-right’s hateful ideology.
Rhetoric is not enough. We need to take action against the far-right. I have asked the home secretary to use her powers to proscribe the English Defence League.
In a letter to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, Yousaf claimed that “Britain has a far-right problem”, urging her to use anti-terrorism powers to make membership of the group illegal, while ackowledhing this would not be an “overnight fix”.
“It is time we took on the English Defence League and the evil ideology that drives them,” he wrote.
Yousaf said the proscription would demonstrate the new Labour government’s intention to be “proactive in tackling far-right violence and terror that has been allowed to run rampant in the streets of the UK for far too long”.
Angela Rayner has criticised the “disgraceful” rioting in Southport and “disrespectful” social media theories that have been the source of misinformation around the attacker.
Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, the deputy prime minister said:
I think there’s been a couple of instances recently where, especially particularly online, where theories and things are whipped up, whereas actually it turns out to be not true or not the full picture.
And I think there’s a culture now where people want to instantly get the facts, but actually it’s important that police and those people that are doing the work are able to carry out that work. And it’s important for justice as well, because we have law and order in the UK, and it’s important that those authorities are able to establish the facts and then to be able to bring those forward.
But speculation and some of the untruths that have been put around social media, not only is that creating tensions and fear in the community, but it’s disrespectful to family who maybe want those answers that haven’t got those answers.
She urged members of the public to not speculate but instead wait until verified information has been released by authorities.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner says the rioting in Southport was 'disgraceful' and 'disrespectful'
— ITV News (@itvnews) July 31, 2024
'My plea is we all need to step back and just wait, allow the police to do their work', she tells @thismorning pic.twitter.com/eMdk5qfjpr
The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff.
But on Tuesday night a protest by hundreds of far-right activists, believed to be supporters of the English Defence League, saw missiles thrown at police and a local mosque attacked.
Rioting was 'terrifying', says local shop owner
Local shop owner Chanaka Balasuryla has said the Southport community has rallied around him since his store was looted during the chaotic riot scenes last night.
Balasuryla said he called the police after spotting men trying to smash their way in, on the CCTV camera from his home five minutes away.
He said 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 said 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,” Balasuryla told the PA news agency.
“It was terrifying last night,” he said. “But I feel safe again because people are here to protect us.”
Updated
Andy Marsh, the College of Policing chief constable, has paid tribute to the victims of the Southport knife attack and condemned the “disgusting scenes” at yesterday’s riots.
In a statement reported by the Telegraph, Marsh said:
The horrific act of violence in Southport has left families grieving and a whole community in a state of total shock. My thoughts remain with all those affected. I cannot begin to imagine what they will be going through at this time. Their grief must be at the forefront of our minds and in our thoughts.
Last night we witnessed disgusting scenes where a minority of thugs chose to use this appalling tragedy to bring violence to the streets of a devastated community. They attacked a place of worship where people find solace and they injured my colleagues, the very same officers who would likely have responded to this incident just hours before.
I’m very grateful to the officers who dealt with this inexcusable violence and to those from surrounding forces who provided mutual aid. They want to be in their communities supporting people to deal with the aftermath of this attack - they do not deserve to be pelted with bricks by mindless thugs. I know Merseyside Police will be providing them with support and I wish those injured a speedy recovery.
Above all I continue to hold the families involved in this unspeakable tragedy in my thoughts.
Southport riot was like a 'war scene', resident says
Norman Wallis, chief executive of Southport Pleasureland, was among those helping to clean up at the junction of Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road after the riot last night.
He said:
There are hundreds of people who have responded, and we’ve ended up with lots of people down here today, all from the local community and helping with the fantastic clean-up 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 change of clothes. They just started to riot and do this.
Sunrise in Southport. A scene of devastation surrounding the mosque on St Luke’s Road after an angry mob attacked police last night. Bricks, bottles, fireworks sit alongside bits of a burnt out police vehicle - metal melted in the heat. @GMB pic.twitter.com/AD0wZS2zIm
— Richard Gaisford (@richardgaisford) July 31, 2024
Updated
Merseyside’s police and crime commissioner, Emily Spurrell, has said there is a “strong feeling” that members of the English Defence League have used the Southport stabbing to “whip up hatred”.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, she said that the “violence and abuse” towards police officers on Tuesday was “utterly abhorrent and completely unacceptable”.
She said:
(Merseyside Police) will be reviewing the footage of exactly who was there last night, they have been monitoring the online activity as well, trying to understand who was doing what.
They have said that they believe it was members of the English Defence League (EDL), they don’t believe it was individuals from the local area.
There is a strong feeling that there are individuals like the EDL, who have been using this incredibly tragic event to whip up hatred, incite violence, and that’s the result of what we saw last night.
There is a strong sense that this is people who have come from out-of-area simply to create violence and abuse against officers and towards a community who are not in any way accepting of this behaviour.
More than 50 officers injured in riot, says Merseyside Police Federation
Merseyside Police Federation (MPF) has issued a statement after dozens of officers were injured in the riot last night which saw police vehicles being set alight and missiles hurled at officers. As we reported earlier, the North west ambulance service said it treated 39 patients in total, all of which were police officers. The MPF said over 50 police officers were injured.
Chris McGlade, chair of Merseyside Police Federation, said police officers should be going home at the end of their shifts, not to hospital. His statement reads:
Merseyside is reeling from an unimaginable tragedy. An incident that has left us all shocked as human beings. We are equally shocked as police officers.
The very same courageous officers who are themselves trying to come to terms with what has happened in Southport this week came under a sustained and vicious attack last night.
It is utterly disgusting that more than 50 police officers were injured.
Brave colleagues have been left with fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion.
I utterly condemn the actions of these mindless and violent thugs - and they will be brought to justice for their actions.
The Federation are supporting our injured colleagues at this horrific time and send them our best wishes - as I know the rest of the country will do.
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.
"Police officers should be going home at the end of their shifts... not to hospital." Statement from Merseyside Police Federation Chair Chris McGlade following 50 of our colleagues being injured in disorder in Southport last night. https://t.co/QOqIuA3zGC pic.twitter.com/J6OLet9gGv
— Merseyside Police Federation (@MerPolFed) July 31, 2024
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires from Southport. There is a huge community effort underway to clean up the area (around Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road) after last night’s violence:
What exactly happened in the Southport riot last night?
Josh Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England editor, has been reporting from Southport since Monday. He has this account of the violence that broke out last night, which you can read in full here.
Hundreds of people had taken part in a peaceful vigil on Tuesday evening outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, with many in tears as they laid flowers and cards of remembrance. But the vigil was followed by a far-right protest outside a local mosque, which quickly turned violent.
Demonstrators gathered in the area surrounding Hart Street, where Monday’s killings took place. The crowd of hundreds were heard shouting Islamophobic slogans as well as “no surrender”, “English till I die” and “we want our country back” as a police helicopter circled overhead.
Riot police charged at the demonstrators after a police van was set alight and other police vehicles were damaged . Officers used teargas on the angry crowds of predominantly men covering their faces.
Some officers were injured after plant pots and empty bins were among the missiles hurled at them and the Southport mosque building. A group of people attempted to overturn a riot van. Some men were seen pulling down a crumbling wall to use the bricks as weapons, pelting officers with them. Others ripped open black bin bags looking for objects to throw.
Some spectators watched from front gardens, while passersby looked on, saying: “I can’t believe it, it’s horrible isn’t it?” Another said: “This doesn’t achieve anything.”
The violence was so serious that Merseyside police were forced to call in reinforcements. Officers were rushed in from north Wales, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
As officers from five forces struggled to bring the disorder under control, police introduced a 24-hour section 60 order giving officers enhanced stop and search powers, and a section 34 dispersal order allowing police to seize any item, including vehicles, used to commit anti-social behaviour, as well as being able to tell people to leave the area.
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Riots caused by propaganda and lies spread online about identity of attacker, local MP says
Patrick Hurley, the MP for Southport, has also been speaking with Times Radio this morning. He said the riots occurred because of the “propaganda and lies” spread on social media about the identity of the attacker.
The only details released about the suspect by police described him as a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire who was born in Cardiff.
Hurley told Times Radio:
Because of the propaganda and the lies that were being spread around on social media from within minutes of the news breaking on Monday afternoon about the tragic incident.
We’d had all sorts of lies being spread and misinformation being spread about the alleged perpetrator and some people with the best of intentions then they tried to rebut this, they tried to argue back, but all that happens is you’re just amplifying people’s false messaging.
This misinformation doesn’t just exist on people’s internet browsers and on people’s phones. It has real world impact.
And what happened is that the real world impact of that was that we then had hundreds of people descending on the town, descending on Southport from outside of the area, intent on causing trouble, either because they believe what they’ve written, or because they are bad faith actors who wrote it in the first place, in the hope of causing community division.
On Wednesday morning, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) paid tribute to the three girls killed, before condemning “shocking scenes of far-right rioters running amok outside a mosque”. The MCB called it an Islamophobic backlash that began with a false rumour on the internet.
The MCB secretary general, Zara Mohammed, said: “At a time of great tragedy, loss, and mourning, we must stand firm against the cynical forces of hatred and division. This does not represent our diverse Britain and the people of Southport.”
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Southport MP says 'thugs' who disrespected victims' families should be shown 'full force of the law'
Thirty-nine police officers were injured during violence in Southport last night after protesters pelted police with glass bottles and bricks and attacked a mosque following a knife attack that killed three children.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were all fatally stabbed in Southport on Monday, while a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder.
In the aftermath of the knife attack, several false accusations were spread on social media with incorrect names of the suspect.
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 around 7.45pm.
Southport’s MP, Patrick Hurley, has said the violent rioters must face the “full force of the law” after Merseyside police confirmed that eight officers suffered serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and a concussion. Other officers suffered head injuries and serious facial injuries, and one was knocked unconscious.
Hurley made clear that the people who rioted in the normally quiet seaside town of Southport last night “were thugs who’d got the train in”, not residents, as he condemned the violence.
Hurley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning:
These were thugs who got the train in, these were not the people from Southport.
They were using the horrific incident on Monday, the deaths of three little kiddies, for their own political purposes and actually to attack the very same first responders and the very same police, who had been on the scene on Monday, were then being pelted with bricks the day after by these thugs.
There’s no way to describe that other than to say it’s utterly reprehensible and we must identify these people and make sure that the full force of the law is down against them.
These people are utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children and utterly disrespecting the town.
"These were thugs who got the train in... They were using the death of three little kiddies for their own political purposes."
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 31, 2024
Patrick Hurley, Labour MP for Southport, says last night's unrest in the town was 'utterly reprehensible'.#R4Today
We will bring you the latest updates on last night’s riots and the ongoing investigation into Monday’s deadly attacks, for which a motive still has not been established by police.
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