Thousands of heartbroken mourners tonight gathered for a vigil to remember the three young girls who were killed in the Southport rampage on Monday.
Tearful locals laid flowers outside the Merseyside town’s grand Atkinson building after falling silent to remember six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Elise Dot Stancombe.
THE SOUTHPORT RAMPAGE
They were among 11 children stabbed during a ‘ferocious’ knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in Southport on Monday lunchtime.
Five further children, aged between six and 11, are in a critical condition alongside two female adults, among them hero yoga teacher Leanne Lucas, who ‘bravely tried to protect them’.
In the first week of the summer holidays, the seaside town should be bustling with happy families and tourists.
THE TOWN IS IN GRIEF AND SHOCK
But at 6pm on Tuesday, more than 5,000 people stood in silence outside the Atkinson building amid an outpouring of grief and shock.
In front of the Grade II-listed building, which comprises a theatre, museum and library, is the Town Hall Gardens, where a sea of floral tributes built up.
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TRIBUTES
One heartbreaking poster surrounded by candles and flowers said ‘never stop dancing’.
The children had been enjoying a summer holiday dance workshop when a knifeman entered the studio and launched a frenzied attack.
Among the bouquets, there were also a number of Taylor Swift-style friendship bracelets.
‘Thinking of you all,’ a row of four of them spelt out.
Many of those in attendance wept and embraced each other as civic leaders spoke of the ‘life-changing tragedy’.
