Southport stabbing latest: rioting ‘thugs’ have disrespected victims’ families, local MP says | UK news


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What exactly happened in the Southport riot last night?

Josh Halliday

Josh Halliday

Josh Halliday, the Guardian’s north of England editor, has been reporting from Southport since Monday. He has this account of the violence that broke out last night, which you can read in full here.

Hundreds of people had taken part in a peaceful vigil on Tuesday evening outside Southport’s Atkinson arts venue, with many in tears as they laid flowers and cards of remembrance. But the vigil was followed by a far-right protest outside a local mosque, which quickly turned violent.

Demonstrators gathered in the area surrounding Hart Street, where Monday’s killings took place. The crowd of hundreds were heard shouting Islamophobic slogans as well as “no surrender”, “English till I die” and “we want our country back” as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Riot police charged at the demonstrators after a police van was set alight and other police vehicles were damaged . Officers used teargas on the angry crowds of predominantly men covering their faces.

Southport: police clash with protesters while hundreds mourn for stabbing victims – video report

Some officers were injured after plant pots and empty bins were among the missiles hurled at them and the Southport mosque building. A group of people attempted to overturn a riot van. Some men were seen pulling down a crumbling wall to use the bricks as weapons, pelting officers with them. Others ripped open black bin bags looking for objects to throw.

Some spectators watched from front gardens, while passersby looked on, saying: “I can’t believe it, it’s horrible isn’t it?” Another said: “This doesn’t achieve anything.”

The violence was so serious that Merseyside police were forced to call in reinforcements. Officers were rushed in from north Wales, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

As officers from five forces struggled to bring the disorder under control, police introduced a 24-hour section 60 order giving officers enhanced stop and search powers, and a section 34 dispersal order allowing police to seize any item, including vehicles, used to commit anti-social behaviour, as well as being able to tell people to leave the area.

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Riots caused by propaganda and lies spread online about identity of attacker, local MP says

Patrick Hurley, the MP for Southport, has also been speaking with Times Radio this morning. He said the riots occurred because of the “propaganda and lies” spread on social media about the identity of the attacker.

The only details released about the suspect by police described him as a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire who was born in Cardiff.

Hurley told Times Radio:

Because of the propaganda and the lies that were being spread around on social media from within minutes of the news breaking on Monday afternoon about the tragic incident.

We’d had all sorts of lies being spread and misinformation being spread about the alleged perpetrator and some people with the best of intentions then they tried to rebut this, they tried to argue back, but all that happens is you’re just amplifying people’s false messaging.

This misinformation doesn’t just exist on people’s internet browsers and on people’s phones. It has real world impact.

And what happened is that the real world impact of that was that we then had hundreds of people descending on the town, descending on Southport from outside of the area, intent on causing trouble, either because they believe what they’ve written, or because they are bad faith actors who wrote it in the first place, in the hope of causing community division.

On Wednesday morning, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) paid tribute to the three girls killed, before condemning “shocking scenes of far-right rioters running amok outside a mosque”. The MCB called it an Islamophobic backlash that began with a false rumour on the internet.

Southport MP says ‘thugs’ who disrespected victims’ families should be shown ‘full force of the law’

Thirty-nine police officers were injured during violence in Southport last night after protesters pelted police with glass bottles and bricks and attacked a mosque following a knife attack that killed three children.

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were all fatally stabbed in Southport on Monday, while a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remains in custody accused of murder and attempted murder.

In the aftermath of the knife attack, several false accusations were spread on social media with incorrect names of the suspect.

Merseyside Police said “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began to throw items such as bricks towards the mosque in the seaside town at around 7.45pm.

Damage to the Southport Islamic society mosque following a night of disorder in Southport. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

Southport’s MP, Patrick Hurley, has said the violent rioters must face the “full force of the law” after Merseyside police confirmed that eight officers suffered serious injuries including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and a concussion. Other officers suffered head injuries and serious facial injuries, and one was knocked unconscious.

Hurley made clear that the people who rioted in the normally quiet seaside town of Southport last night “were thugs who’d got the train in”, not residents, as he condemned the violence.

Hurley told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning:

These were thugs who got the train in, these were not the people from Southport.

They were using the horrific incident on Monday, the deaths of three little kiddies, for their own political purposes and actually to attack the very same first responders and the very same police, who had been on the scene on Monday, were then being pelted with bricks the day after by these thugs.

There’s no way to describe that other than to say it’s utterly reprehensible and we must identify these people and make sure that the full force of the law is down against them.

These people are utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children and utterly disrespecting the town.

We will bring you the latest updates on last night’s riots and the ongoing investigation into Monday’s deadly attacks, for which a motive still has not been established by police.



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