Man held as eight taken to hospital

Eight individuals, together with numerous youngsters, have been injured in a stabbing in a city.

Merseyside Police mentioned officers have been known as to a “main incident” at a property on Hart Avenue in Southport at about 11:50 BST.

The drive mentioned armed police “detained a male and seized a knife” and there was “no wider risk to the general public”.

North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) mentioned they’d handled eight sufferers with stab accidents and a few had been taken to Alder Hey Kids’s Hospital.

Eyewitnesses have mentioned the incident, which concerned numerous youngsters, was “horrendous” and like one thing out of a “horror film”.

Alder Hey Kids’s Hospital mentioned it had declared a “main incident” and is working with different emergency providers as their emergency division is at the moment “extraordinarily busy”.

They mentioned mother and father ought to solely deliver their youngsters in if it was pressing, including all different appointments and providers have been operating as regular.

NWAS mentioned it “dispatched 13 ambulances together with specialised assets” to the incidents and had additionally taken sufferers with stab accidents to Aintree College Hospital and Southport and Formby Hospital.

Journalist Tim Johnson of Eye on Southport, who arrived on the scene about 20 minutes after the police had been known as, mentioned a Taylor Swift Yoga and Dance Workshop aimed toward Yr 2 to Yr 6 major faculty youngsters had been going down close by.

The organisers have been approached for remark however haven’t but responded.

Mr Johnson the incident occurred on the Hope of Hart youngsters’s membership, which is housed in a former warehouse constructing on a again avenue.

He mentioned these harm have been youngsters and he had seen one lady on a stretcher who was critically injured.

“It was horrendous. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” he mentioned.

“There have been so many police automobiles.

“It was a mass of blue lights.

“I noticed ambulance women and men in tears. Folks have been in tears within the streets.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer mentioned the a number of stabbings have been “horrendous and deeply stunning” as he thanked emergency providers for his or her response.

Residence Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned she was “deeply involved” in regards to the “very critical incident”, whereas Southport MP Patrick Hurley added that he was “hoping for the very best outcomes to the casualties affected”.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool Metropolis Area, has urged the general public to not unfold “unconfirmed hypothesis and false info”.

A neighborhood enterprise proprietor, who was one of many individuals who known as the police, mentioned it had been like a “scene in a horror film”.

Colin Parry, proprietor of Masters Automobile Physique Repairs on Hart Avenue, mentioned he believed six or seven “younger ladies” had been stabbed and their mom visibly upset.

“It is like one thing from America, not like sunny Southport,” he mentioned.

A girl who lives close by instructed the Liverpool Echo she heard sirens and a helicopter circling at about 12:20 BST.

She mentioned shortly after, the messages “began to go across the native WhatsApp teams, saying ‘lock your home windows, lock your doorways'”.

“We have been instructed a person was operating round stabbing individuals,” she mentioned.

“We’re all completely terrified, panicking and sick with fear – everyone seems to be attempting to achieve anybody they know within the space.

“I do not understand how this could occur on a Monday lunchtime.”

Further reporting by PA Media.