SOUTHPORT, England (Reuters) – Violent clashes in a seaside town in northwest England following the killing of three young girls at a dance workshop in a stabbing attack, left dozens of British police officers injured late on Tuesday.
Police vans were set on fire in Southport and protesters dismantled garden walls to hurl bricks at both officers and at a mosque following speculation on social media that the teenage suspect behind the attack was a Muslim.
The horrific incident in the normally quiet town, which left eight other children wounded, five of them in critical condition in hospital along with two adults who tried to protect them, was not linked to terrorism, police said.
Police have arrested an unnamed 17-year-old male on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. The suspect was born in Britain, they said.
A total of 39 police officers were treated for injuries, including 27 who were taken to hospital, North West Ambulance Service said early on Wednesday.
“Offenders have destroyed garden walls so they could use the bricks to attack our officers and have set cars belonging to the public on fire, and damaged cars parked in the Mosque car park,” Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss of Merseyside Police said in a statement.
“This is no way to treat a community, least of all a community that is still reeling from the events of Monday.”
The girls aged 6 to 9 were stabbed in a violent attack on Monday at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event for children in the town north of Liverpool, leaving two children dead initially in an assault that has shocked the nation.
Swift’s fans have so far raised 270,000 pounds ($346,000) to help families of the victims and for the hospital where some of the children were being treated.
Police said violence erupted late on Tuesday when a large group of people, “believed to be supporters of the English Defence League,” a far right group, threw items towards a mosque in the town.
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(This story has been refiled to say ‘leave’ instead of ‘leaves’ in the headline)
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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