Southport tragedy

[Gemini]

The attack on the primary school children attending a holiday dance class is just too horrific to comprehend

My GD was at her holiday dance workshop today. It really brings it home.

Thinking of the families who lost their loved ones, and hoping the injured recover well.
A 17 year old boy was responsible apparently.

[Nanto2girls]

This was a senseless act.

Hard to imagine what the families are going through.

Wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

[Daisy]

I've just read about it. I feel sick for all those involved. It seems even worse (if that were possible) that this was a quiet residential area where children were having fun at a holiday activity. It brings it home that nobody is safe anywhere these days, and children are so vulnerable.

Gem, I can imagine how shocking it must be knowing your beautiful GD was at her dance class when this evil act was happening.

When are we as a nation going to get a grip on all this senseless knife and gun crime.

[Oma]

I cried watching the news then watching that car mechanic crying as he described the scene .
All those poor babies and the ones trying to protect them.
Everyone involved public and emergency services will be traumatised,

Such madness in the world .
The boys parents must be going through agony knowing their son was responsible for such a act.

No doubt the mental health card will come out .

[Plantaholic]

Oh gracious, of course, travelling yesterday, I hadn’t heard the news.

[Lizzie48]

I have just seen that a third child has died, the young man must have had so much hate cropped up inside of him to do anything like this! Sickening!!!

[Gemini]

Oh no Lizzie, how awful.

DD said she felt a bit weird dropping off GD for the second day of her dance workshop today.

She knows this is hopefully very much a one off tragedy, but the history with the unpleasant boy who made my GD's life so miserable makes us nervous.

[Oma]

Gem
I can understand your fear , you never know with boys like that xx

[Plantaholic]

You almost feel like wrapping your child up and protecting them these days. Do you feel there is so much more media coverage to these awful events that you get some copycat ones. There has been some reports about that awful tragedy in Dunblane due to Andy Murray being in the limelight.

[Gemini]

If all this wasn't tragic enough, all the unrest brought on by mindless, ignorant racists defies belief.

I have copied this from a newspaper article

Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief It’s been hard to make sense of events in Britain this week. On Monday morning, a roomful of excited young children attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in Southport, Merseyside; fun-filled summer holidays stretched out ahead of them. By noon, two small girls had been murdered, and another died the following day. Several other children were critically injured, along with two adults. It was the worst attack on children in the UK since the Dunblane massacre in 1996. The person accused of the knife attack is a 17-year-old who, until a judge intervened on Thursday, couldn’t legally be named because of his age. It was a deeply disturbing act of violence that shocked the country. The community held a moving vigil on Tuesday to grieve together, but then there was another grim development. Almost immediately after the attack, far right groups began to spread misinformation, including a false name for the suspect and racist AI-generated images to weaponise the event against Muslims as well those seeking asylum in Britain. Two miles away from the vigil, a far-right mob, many of whom were drunk, gathered outside a mosque. They attacked the building and 53 police officers were injured. While the mother of one of the victims called for calm, Nigel Farage, now an elected MP for the Reform party, was accused of helping to incite violence by making remarks suggesting the truth about the incident was being withheld. On Wednesday unrest broke out in other areas across England, including the targeting of accommodation used by asylum seekers. Dan Milmo and Ben Quinn looked at how the false claims about the attack managed to spread so quickly and how TikTok bots and AI have powered a far-right resurgence. Our reporters in Southport, Josh Halliday and Hannah Al-Othman, have had an extremely difficult week. I’d urge you to listen to this episode of Today in Focus with Josh speaking to Helen Pidd to get a sense of what a desperate moment it’s been for the town, and how the tragedy was hijacked by opportunistic far-right groups. Gaby Hinsliff wrote powerfully on the topic: “If you really care about the victims of an unspeakable tragedy, you don’t use their suffering as an excuse to loot corner shops”. Misinformation in the wake of major news events is becoming endemic around the world, with social media companies unwilling or unable to act. Events in Southport were reminiscent of the riots in Dublin last year after another case of young children being stabbed by a man rumoured to be from abroad. Similarly, in the wake of the Trump shooting, George Chidi looked at how it was seized upon by those on the fringes and highlighted the media’s crucial role in tackling the instant spiral of false news. As we’ve witnessed this week, online misinformation does real damage. But it’s important this unrest doesn’t overshadow the thing that matters most: three children were killed. It will be hard to forget their lovely, hopeful, unjaded faces, their gap-toothed smiles.

[Daisy]

I'm stil finding it hard to accept that one young man has killed three little children and as if that weren't bad enough, it's lead to more violence, hatred and injuries.