Southport MP, Patrick Hurley, condemned the violent rioters in Southport who injured 39 police officers after protesters attacked a mosque following a knife attack that killed three children. Hurley emphasized that these rioters, who were not residents of Southport but had come from outside the area, should face the full force of the law for their reprehensible actions. He criticized the thugs for using the tragic incident to further their own political purposes and disrespecting the families of the victims and the town. Hurley’s strong stance against the violence and call for justice was echoed by Merseyside Police Federation, who condemned the mindless and violent actions of the rioters and expressed support for the injured officers.
Southport stabbing latest: rioting ‘thugs’ have disrespected victims’ families, local MP says | UK news
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.
“These were thugs who got the train in… They were using the death of three little kiddies for their own political purposes.”
Patrick Hurley, Labour MP for Southport, says last night’s unrest in the town was ‘utterly reprehensible’.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 31, 2024
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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Updated at 09.04 BST
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Andy Marsh, the College of Policing chief constable, has paid tribute to the victims of the Southport knife attack and condemned the “disgusting scenes” at yesterday’s riots.
In a statement reported by the Telegraph, Marsh said:
The horrific act of violence in Southport has left families grieving and a whole community in a state of total shock. My thoughts remain with all those affected. I cannot begin to imagine what they will be going through at this time. Their grief must be at the forefront of our minds and in our thoughts.
Last night we witnessed disgusting scenes where a minority of thugs chose to use this appalling tragedy to bring violence to the streets of a devastated community. They attacked a place of worship where people find solace and they injured my colleagues, the very same officers who would likely have responded to this incident just hours before.
I’m very grateful to the officers who dealt with this inexcusable violence and to those from surrounding forces who provided mutual aid. They want to be in their communities supporting people to deal with the aftermath of this attack – they do not deserve to be pelted with bricks by mindless thugs. I know Merseyside Police will be providing them with support and I wish those injured a speedy recovery.
Above all I continue to hold the families involved in this unspeakable tragedy in my thoughts.
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Southport riot was like a ‘war scene’, resident says
Norman Wallis, chief executive of Southport Pleasureland, was among those helping to clean up at the junction of Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road after the riot last night.
He said:
There are hundreds of people who have responded, and we’ve ended up with lots of people down here today, all from the local community and helping with the fantastic clean-up It’s horrendous what those hooligans have done last night.
It was like a war scene. People from out of town just causing absolute mayhem. People in hoods climbing up lampposts, throwing bricks, they set a police car on fire. But none of those people were the people of Southport.
The people of Southport are the ones here today cleaning the mess up. Those people from out of town – they came in in buses and cars and had change of clothes. They just started to riot and do this.
Sunrise in Southport. A scene of devastation surrounding the mosque on St Luke’s Road after an angry mob attacked police last night. Bricks, bottles, fireworks sit alongside bits of a burnt out police vehicle – metal melted in the heat. @GMB pic.twitter.com/AD0wZS2zIm
— Richard Gaisford (@richardgaisford) July 31, 2024
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Updated at 09.54 BST
Merseyside’s police and crime commissioner, Emily Spurrell, has said there is a “strong feeling” that members of the English Defence League have used the Southport stabbing to “whip up hatred”.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, she said that the “violence and abuse” towards police officers on Tuesday was “utterly abhorrent and completely unacceptable”.
She said:
(Merseyside Police) will be reviewing the footage of exactly who was there last night, they have been monitoring the online activity as well, trying to understand who was doing what.
They have said that they believe it was members of the English Defence League (EDL), they don’t believe it was individuals from the local area.
There is a strong feeling that there are individuals like the EDL, who have been using this incredibly tragic event to whip up hatred, incite violence, and that’s the result of what we saw last night.
There is a strong sense that this is people who have come from out-of-area simply to create violence and abuse against officers and towards a community who are not in any way accepting of this behaviour.
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More than 50 officers injured in riot, says Merseyside Police Federation
Merseyside Police Federation (MPF) has issued a statement after dozens of officers were injured in the riot last night which saw police vehicles being set alight and missiles hurled at officers. As we reported earlier, the North west ambulance service said it treated 39 patients in total, all of which were police officers. The MPF said over 50 police officers were injured.
Chris McGlade, chair of Merseyside Police Federation, said police officers should be going home at the end of their shifts, not to hospital. His statement reads:
Merseyside is reeling from an unimaginable tragedy. An incident that has left us all shocked as human beings. We are equally shocked as police officers.
The very same courageous officers who are themselves trying to come to terms with what has happened in Southport this week came under a sustained and vicious attack last night.
It is utterly disgusting that more than 50 police officers were injured.
Brave colleagues have been left with fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and concussion.
I utterly condemn the actions of these mindless and violent thugs – and they will be brought to justice for their actions.
The Federation are supporting our injured colleagues at this horrific time and send them our best wishes – as I know the rest of the country will do.
Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands, wives and partners. We should be going home at the end of our shifts. Not to hospital.
“Police officers should be going home at the end of their shifts… not to hospital.” Statement from Merseyside Police Federation Chair Chris McGlade following 50 of our colleagues being injured in disorder in Southport last night. https://t.co/QOqIuA3zGC pic.twitter.com/J6OLet9gGv
— Merseyside Police Federation (@MerPolFed) July 31, 2024Share
Updated at 09.58 BST
Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires from Southport. There is a huge community effort underway to clean up the area (around Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road) after last night’s violence:
Response workers clear Sussex Road in Southport, Merseyside, after Tuesday night’s riot. Photograph: James Speakman/PADamaged dustbins in Southport, Merseyside, after violent protests following a vigil for the victims of the deadly knife attack on Monday. Photograph: James Speakman/PAVolunteers sweep Sussex Road in Southport, Merseyside. Photograph: James Speakman/PAVolunteers on Sussex Road in Southport help in the clean up effort. Photograph: James Speakman/PAShare
What exactly happened in the Southport riot last night?
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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Updated at 08.51 BST
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.
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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.
“These were thugs who got the train in… They were using the death of three little kiddies for their own political purposes.”
Patrick Hurley, Labour MP for Southport, says last night’s unrest in the town was ‘utterly reprehensible’.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 31, 2024
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.
Share
Updated at 09.04 BST
Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2024/jul/31/southport-stabbing-suspect-riots-latest-victims-alice-dasilva-aguiar-bebe-king-elise-dot-stancombe