UK cops injured during ‘serious disorder’ after 3 girls killed in knife attack at Taylor Swift-themed dance party
Several British cops were injured Saturday amid ongoing violent clashes nationwide that erupted after three young girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in northwest England Monday.
Several police officers were harmed amid “serious disorder” in Liverpool’s city centre, about 20 miles from the site of Monday’s heinous stabbing spree in the seaside town of Southport, Merseyside Police said.
The police force, which covers Liverpool and Southport, wrote on X that there is “no place for this despicable behaviour which disrupts the lives of members of the public who live in the city or are visiting to enjoy the amenities the city has to offer.”
Several British cops were injured Saturday amid ongoing violent clashes nationwide that erupted after three young girls were murdered at a dance class in northwest England Monday. AP
In Hull, a city in northeast England, three police officers were injured and four people arrested amid the mayhem, which included demonstrators chucking bottles at protests.
A video posted on X shows hundreds gathered outside a shopping plaza in Hull, where rioters looted a shoe store before setting fire to the stolen supplies dumped outside the storefront, with a second blaze raging just a few hundred feet away.
Rioters also smashed the windows of the Royal Hotel, where riot police with dogs deployed to crack down on chaos, according to the Daily Express.
In Stoke-on-Trent in central England, bricks were thrown at police offices, while scuffles had been reported in cities including Belfast, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham.
Newly-elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened an emergency meeting Saturday with senior ministers, where he said police had the government’s backing to crack down on the “extremists” who were attacking cops and attempting to “sow hate,” according to his office in No. 10 Downing Street.
The waves of protests nationwide came in the wake of false rumours online that the serial stabber was a radical Muslim immigrant. AP
There was “no excuse for violence” at the protests,” Starmer said.
Riots and unrest involving hundreds of protesters have rocked the nation in recent days following Monday’s stabbing spree, where three little girls — Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 — were killed and nine others were injured.
The suspect arrested in connection to the attack, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents. Still, false rumours spread online that the killer was a radical Muslim immigrant, setting off a wave of riots and protests, including in Sunderland in northeast Friday night.