How does a community come to terms with an attack that hits with such ferocity, such barbarity, such searing horror that it is beyond even the stuff of nightmares?
What sort of society do we live in when a highlight of the summer holidays, in the middle of a sunny day at the seaside, turns into what witnesses likened to “a scene from a horror movie”?
And perhaps the most pressing question being asked by families in Southport and beyond: why?
“The whole community is feeling very numb,” said one woman, whose seven-year-old daughter was friends with one of the three young girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport on Monday.
“Her friend and two others are no longer here,” she added. “She’s struggling to get her head round it but she’s asked a lot of questions about why would someone do that, who did it. I hope we get answers that we need so we can move forward.”
Detectives were trying to answer that crucial question – why? – by combing the background of the 17-year-old suspect, who was born in Cardiff and whose family live 5 miles from the crime scene in the village of Banks.
Three girls – Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine – have died and five other children remain in a critical condition after the knife rampage at the Hart Space, a community hub used for yoga classes and antenatal workshops.
“Why? Why? These parents need that answer: why this has happened,” said Kyon Tysoe, 50, holding back tears after leaving a teddy and flowers at the police cordon protecting the crime scene.
“It’s a seaside town. We’re supposed to have fun here. We’re not supposed to have roads closed off and multiple murders. The biggest question is why.”
Joanne Abbey, who is due to give birth to her first child next month, said she had taken part in yoga classes at the Hart Space during her pregnancy, describing it as a “gorgeous, lovely, calm space”.
After leaving flowers at the crime scene, she said: “It’s affected everybody but maybe, as a mum-to-be, it hits home that your child is safe inside you and those children who were there – I can’t begin to imagine what they were going through.”
Children of primary school age – the same age as many of the victims – were among those leaving flowers, teddy bears and other tributes at the roadside, often comforted by a protective hand from parents or grandparents.
One handwritten message, pinned to a bouquet, read: “For the lost angels. You will never be forgotten. Too beautiful for this world. In the arms of our lord, you are now safe. Keep dancing. Shine bright. We are Southport, we stand together.”
Many parents across Britain will have felt a new, and unnatural, pang of anxiety when leaving their children at holiday clubs.
Just as the Dunblane massacre led to increased security in schools in 1996, many are asking whether the Southport attack will turn these sanctuaries of innocent play into mini-fortresses.
“It’s just … where are they safe?” asked one tearful resident, leaving St Peter’s church in Birkdale on Monday night. “They’ve gone to dancing where they live. Where do you let your children go?”
Abi Wardell, 22, laying flowers on Hart Street, said her friend had been too afraid to take her child to nursery on Tuesday, even though such incidents are mercifully rare and detectives have said there was no wider threat to the public.
Young children in dresses from the Disney movie Frozen were seen leaving tributes at the scene.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, hugged Southport’s MP, Patrick Hurley, as they laid flowers at the scene of the atrocity.
Colin Gibson, 35, said he hoped people would focus on the victims of the mass stabbing and not share “speculation” about the attacker or any motives.
“Personally, that really worries me. People using this to back their own rhetoric. I just hope people can focus on the nine young girls and the two adults. It’s beyond sad.”
He added: “It should be a place for families, celebration and happiness. It should be shielded away from the darkness of the world.”
But an appearance later on Tuesday from the prime minister, Keir Starmer, underlined the restlessness in a community looking for answers when he was confronted by angry heckles from some passersby.
As the prime minister laid down his wreath and stood momentarily in silence, a person shouted: “How many more Starmer? When are you going to do something?”
As his car left, another shouted: “How many more children? Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”
Across the Victorian seaside town, nicknamed “sunny Southport”, residents have rallied together, raising tens of thousands of pounds for the affected families, North West air ambulance, and Alder Hey children’s hospital.
Hospitality staff have pledged to donate a month of tips to charity, taxi drivers are offering families free transport to hospital, private therapists are offering free counselling to those directly affected, and a security company has offered to provide free staff to other local school holiday clubs.
Southport residents have also been travelling to Liverpool to give blood, responding to a national call to meet a shortage of stocks of O-type.
In Banks, meanwhile, the atmosphere felt somewhat febrile. Residents in the quiet village that was home to the teenage suspect made reference to his ethnicity, alongside barbed comments about immigration.
Some said they knew of an adult couple who lived at the house, but most people had no recollection of the 17-year-old.
A figure was filmed pacing outside a residential property in Banks in a green hoodie and Covid-style face mask shortly before the attack unfolded.
“We’re just all really shocked that something like this would happen here,” said one resident. Another asked: “What’s the motive, what’s the reason? That’s the terrible thing.”
