Memorial services are set to be held across Southport today as crowds gather in remembrance of the three girls stabbed to death on Monday.
The services follow a week of unrest across the country after fake news spread about the stabbing led far-right rioters to take to the streets of many British towns and cities.
Southport found itself at the centre of the turmoil engulfing the nation following the horrifying stabbing of children at a Taylor Swift dance event on Monday which led to the death of three little girls, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar and a further nine victims are being treated in hospital.
Now community leaders in the seaside town are asking for people to come together to allow the town to grieve over what has happened.
Churches across Southport have announced that memorial services will be taking place throughout the day in memory of the victims.
Memorial services are set to be held across Southport today as crowds gather in remembrance of the three girls stabbed to death on Monday
From left to right: Alice Dasilva Aguiar,9, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and six-year-old Bebe King. The three girls tragically died after they were stabbed at a Taylor Swift dance event
Reverend Marie-Anne Kent appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to speak about the services taking place in the town
St Philip and St Paul with Wesley is one church holding a service today. Reverend Marie-Anne Kent from the church appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to speak about the events taking place in the town.
She said: ‘Across Southport churches will be open to everybody for those of faith and no faith to be a safe space to bring all that we’re feeling today: the anxiety, the numbness, the fear and the grief.
‘Everybody is welcome whatever you believe. We need to come together at times like this.’
Meanwhile, memorials have sprung up across the Merseyside town where residents can leave floral tributes to the victims.
Landmarks across the country were lit up in pink yesterday in tribute to the three children killed in the attack including Downing Street, the Cunard Building in Liverpool and a tree on Hart Street in Southport near to where the attack took place.
In the Portuguese island of Madeira has held a church service in remembrance of the victims.
Alice Dasilva Aguiar family are originally from the island and mourners later gathered outside the church to release white balloons.
Paying tribute to Alice, her aunt Carina Aguair wrote on Facebook: ‘Princess Alice… rest in peace… fly so high… and look at daddy and mummy who mourn your tender absence so much.’
Rev Kent also spoke about the riots which have taken place throughout the week.
She said: ‘There is a lot of mixed emotions around not only are we remembering the victims but Southport is now associated with the violence going on across the country.
A woman and a child embrace while they look at flowers in Southport. Memorials have sprung up across the Merseyside town where residents can leave floral tributes to the victims
Landmarks across the country were lit up in pink yesterday in tribute to the three children killed in the attack including Downing Street
‘We are remembering all those communities too today and working with communities ourselves to work for peace and to act in kindness rather than in hate.’
The violent unrest started on Tuesday when misinformation spread across social media claiming that the suspect in the stabbing was a radical Muslim migrant.
Police have named the suspect as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana who was born in Cardiff to Christian parents from Rwanda. Rudakubana has since been charged with murder and attempted murder.
The misinformation sparked far-right protests across the country. Violence last night broke out in Hull, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Blackpool and Belfast – with many police forces being pushed to breaking point.
Protesters tried to kick down police officer’s riot gear, while other demonstrators threw objects at their shields.
Looters took advantage of the chaos, stealing phones, shoes and wine from the shelves of every-day stores, smashing their windows with bricks and stones.
In Liverpool, a community library that only opened last year after months of fundraising was set on fire by violents thugs who then hurled objects at a fire engine which had been called to stop the blaze.
Kicking the shutters with the feet and wrenching them up in a wild frenzy, the mob battered at the glass with what appeared to be a bollard before leaving the road outside strewn with packaging after they emptied the shelves.
LIVERPOOL: Rioters torched the city’s new Spellow Hub library. which opened last year
In Hull, a Shoezone was pictured with smashed windows and a raging fire inside, while a Greggs and a Specsavers had also been targeted by men with face coverings throwing stones
Meanwhile, in Hull a Shoezone was pictured with smashed windows and a raging fire inside, while a Greggs and a Specsavers had also been targeted by men with face coverings throwing stones.
And in Manchester a Sainsbury’s Local was forced to shut after it was ‘stormed’ by rioters, with eyewitnesses saying they saw the mob ‘grabbing items and throwing them’ from the city centre store.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged his ‘full support’ for police to take action against ‘extremists’ attempting to ‘sow hate’ by intimidating communities – as he held emergency talks with ministers over the unrest in parts of England.
And Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said people involved in the clashes ‘will pay the price’ and that ‘criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets’.
But forces across the country have reported injuries among their ranks – with sick yobs pictured chucking bricks and beating officers as they try to defend the nation’s streets.
Emergency services are now bracing themselves for more outbursts today with rallies
planned in Rotherham, Rushmoor, Weymouth, Middlesbrough and Lancaster this afternoon.
