Taylor Swift “in shock” after stabbing at UK children’s event themed around her musicTaylor Swift “in shock” after stabbing at UK children’s event themed around her music
Flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims; James Speakman/PA Images via Getty Images
Police investigating the deadly attack on a children’s Taylor Swift-themed event in the United Kingdom said a third child died following the attack, as Taylor herself said she was “in shock.”
Officers responded just before noon on Monday to reports of a stabbing at a property on Hart Street in Southport, a seaside town about 20 miles north of Liverpool, according to Merseyside Police. Two girls, aged 6 and 7, were killed and nine other children were injured on Monday in the attack in the seaside town, police said.
A third child, a 9-year-old girl, died Tuesday morning in the hospital, police said. She was one of six wounded children who had been in critical condition, along with two adults, who were also stabbed, police said. The other five children and two adults remained in critical condition on Tuesday, police said.
Merseyside police said the children were attending a Taylor Swift-themed event at a dance school. A flyer for the two-hour event called it a “Taylor Swift Yoga and Dance Workshop.” The event was for children between 6 and 11 years old, according to a post on the organizer’s Instagram.
The “horror” of the attack was “washing over me continuously,” Taylor wrote on her Instagram Story, adding that she was “completely in shock.”
“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and first responders,” she said. “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.”
A 17-year-old boy from Banks, a coastal village in Lancashire, just outside Southport, was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, police said. The attack isn’t being investigated as terror-related.
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