A man whose business is next door to where two children were stabbed to death in Southport has told Sky News the attack was “definitely intentional”.
Warning: the following article contains graphic descriptions of injured children.
Read latest: Two children killed and others critically injured
Colin Parry, who owns Masters Vehicle Body Repairs on Hart Street, said the perpetrator stabbed children multiple times.
“It wasn’t once,” he said. “It was several times he stabbed these kids. The man is crazy.”
Mr Parry said he believed the victims were aged “five upwards”.
Follow latest: Adults fighting for lives after trying to protect children
He arrived at the scene to see one of his colleagues “literally carrying a young girl, covered in blood – he’s covered in blood, trying to look after her, [to] keep her alive”.
He added: “Some of the neighbours were bringing others out – but some had already got out with another girl and apparently this girl had got stabbed many times in the back and in the chest.
“She was really critical. One of the other neighbours was looking after her on the floor.”
Mr Parry continued: “It’s like a nightmare – the biggest, [most] horrific thing you could ever witness in your life, seeing little kids like that.
“And the parents coming and crying and screaming, because this is the time to pick them up, just before lunch. It was horrendous.”
A scene of crime officer in Southport. Pic: PA
‘They were covered in blood’
Another man described how his mother saw “bodies of girls” covered in blood being carried by emergency services after a mass stabbing in Merseyside.
Ryan Carney said his mother Hayley was at home and went outside after hearing screaming and crying.
“All she said was she saw members of either police or ambulance carrying out a few bodies of girls,” he said. “They were in white but covered in red, covered in blood.”
“She said she could see the stab wounds in the backs of the children.”
Mr Carney said his mother told him she made tea for emergency services and came back out to see a woman “screaming, saying she can’t find her child”.
“They let her into the cordon and she [the woman] ran down, and all she could hear was screaming and crying, saying. ‘that’s my child, that’s my child’.”
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Multiple stabbings in Southport
Police earlier declared a “major incident” in Southport – about 10 miles north of Liverpool – and confirmed a 17-year-old boy had been arrested by armed officers and a knife confiscated.
Some victims have been taken to a children’s hospital.
North West Ambulance Service said at least eight people have been taken to hospital.
It was later confirmed that two children had been killed, with nine others injured – six of these critically.
Two adults are also fighting for their lives after trying to protect the children.
‘Like a scene from a horror movie’
Another witness said it was “like a scene from a horror movie” with multiple people injured and “mothers” screaming.
Colin Parry said he believed six or seven people had been knifed.
“The mothers are coming here now and screaming. It is like a scene from a horror movie,” Mr Parry told the Press Association.
“It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport,” he added.
The victims were taken to three local hospitals. Pic: PA
‘Randomly stabbed kids’
Karolina Kaminska told Sky News: “I heard the helicopter was flying around my shop and I’m just thinking what is going on?”
She said she went on a local Facebook page and there were claims someone had “walked into a nursery with a knife and randomly stabbed the kids”.
“I just quickly closed the door to my shop. I’m still shaking. I still can’t think what is happening,” Ms Kaminska added.
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A parent – who wanted to stay anonymous – said his daughter managed to escape the carnage.
“My daughter was in it and she was traumatised. She ran away and she’s safe,” he said.
The alarm was first raised at 11.48am after reports of multiple stabbings near Hart Street.
A local woman told the Liverpool Echo she also heard sirens and the helicopter, before seeing a flurry of activity on her phone.
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Yvette Cooper has been speaking in the House of Commons about the Southport attack
‘Lock your windows, lock your doors’
“Then the messages started to go around the local WhatsApp groups, saying ‘lock your windows, lock your doors’, we were told a man was running around stabbing people,” said the woman – who didn’t give her name.
“We are all absolutely terrified, panicking and sick with worry – everyone is trying to reach anyone they know in the area. I don’t know how this can happen on a Monday lunchtime.”
Ian Uzzell told Sky News he saw four air ambulances arriving in fields and one “casualty” being put on board.