LONDON (AP) 鈥 British police said Thursday they have charged a 17-year-old with murder over a stabbing attack that left three little girls dead and several more in critical condition. The charges came as the traumatized town of Southport cleaned up after a bout of far-right violence, and agitators fired up by anger and misinformation clashed with police near the prime minister鈥檚 residence in London.
The Merseyside Police force said the teenager, who has not been named because of his age, faces three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder over people injured in the attack during a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance and yoga class.
He is due to appear in court in Liverpool later Thursday.
About two dozen children were attending the summer vacation workshop on Monday when an attacker with a knife burst in. Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, died from their injuries. Ten other people were injured, among whom five girls and two adults are in critical condition.
Far-right demonstrators have launched several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday.
A few hundred protesters hurled beer cans and flares near British Prime Minister residence in Downing Street in central London on Wednesday evening. More than 100 people were arrested for offenses including violent disorder and assault on an emergency worker, London's Metropolitan Police force said.
Police also faced violent demonstrators in the town of Hartlepool in northeast England, as far-right groups seek to stir anger over an attack they have sought to link 鈥 without evidence 鈥 to immigrants.
Hours earlier, residents of Southport swept shattered glass and broken bricks from streets after outside a mosque in the seaside town.
On Tuesday night a crowd of several hundred people hurled bricks and bottles at riot police in Southport, set garbage bins and vehicles on fire and looted a store, hours after a peaceful vigil for the girls, aged 6, 7 and 9, were killed. More than 50 officers were injured, including more than two dozen who were taken to hospitals, officials said.
鈥淚 am absolutely appalled and disgusted at the level of violence that was shown towards my officers," Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said. "Some of the first responders who attended that awful scene on Monday ... then were faced with that level of violence.鈥
Five men have been arrested in connection with the riots in Southport, mainly for violent disorder; one was arrested for possessing a knife and fighting. Kennedy said more arrests were expected.
Starmer condemned the 鈥渢huggery鈥 and said the protesters 鈥渉ijacked鈥 the community鈥檚 grief.
Norman Wallis, chief executive of the Southport Pleasureland amusement park, was one of dozens of people who turned up with brushes and shovels to clear the debris.
鈥淚t鈥檚 horrendous what those hooligans have done last night,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut none of those people were the people of Southport," he added. "The people of Southport are the ones here today cleaning the mess up.鈥
The protesters, who police said were supporters of the far-right English Defence League, were apparently fueled false online rumors about the suspect.
Police said a name circulating on social media 鈥 spread by far-right activists and accounts of murky origin purporting to be news organizations 鈥 was incorrect and that he was born in Britain, contrary to online claims he was an asylum-seeker. The names of suspects under the age of 18 are usually not made public in Britain.
Patrick Hurley, the local lawmaker, said the violence by 鈥渂eered-up thugs鈥 was the result of 鈥減ropaganda and lies鈥 spread on social media.
鈥淭his misinformation doesn鈥檛 just exist on people鈥檚 internet browsers and on people鈥檚 phones. It has real world impact,鈥 he said.
Chanaka Balasuryla, whose corner store was looted for booze and cigarettes, said he watched from home on a surveillance camera as a gang broke in. He was terrified because a woman and her daughter lived upstairs and he feared the looters would set the shop on fire.
He learned later that the woman had confronted the mob and told them the Windsor Mini Mart was her shop and asked them to stop. The next morning he went get down to his shop were people waiting to help him clean up.
"I feel safe again because people are here to protect us,鈥 he said.
The rampage in Southport is the latest shocking attack in a country where has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons, by far the most commonly used instruments in U.K. homicides.
Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood in the mayhem outside the Hart Space, a community center that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops to women鈥檚 boot camps.
Joel Verite, a window cleaner riding in a van on his lunch break, said his colleague slammed on the brakes and reversed to where a woman was hanging on the side of a car covered in blood.
鈥淪he just screamed at me: 鈥楬e鈥檚 killing kids over there. He鈥檚 killing kids over there,鈥欌 Verite told Sky News.
鈥淚t was like a scene you鈥檇 see on a disaster film,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 explain to you how horrific it is what I saw.鈥
Britain鈥檚 worst attack on children was in 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 kindergartners and their teacher in a school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland. The United Kingdom subsequently of almost all handguns.
While knives are used in about 40% of homicides each year, mass stabbings are unusual.
___
Associated Press writer Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
