Teen charged in Southport stabbings as riots spread nationwide

Rumours emerged after three young girls were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday.

Social media posts falsely claimed that the attacker was Ali Al-Shakati, a Muslim asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watchlist.

These claims were untrue.

Authorities charged 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from Cardiff with the murders of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Rudakubana also faces ten counts of attempted murder.

Despite Rudakubana’s age, Judge Andrew Menary KC lifted reporting restrictions that previously kept his identity concealed.

Judge Menary stated on Thursday that “continuing to prevent full reporting allows misinformation to spread in a vacuum.”

However, misinformation had already led to a riot in Southport on Tuesday, even before the victims’ families and community could begin to mourn.

As residents cleared debris and created a makeshift memorial with balloons, cards, and stuffed animals, violence erupted nationwide.

By Thursday night, tensions escalated further.

What began as a vigil for Alice, Bebe, and Elsie ended in anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant violence.

Shocked by the girls’ violent deaths, residents struggled to understand how such an event could occur on a quiet Monday afternoon in residential Hart Street.

Hundreds gathered in Southport town centre on Tuesday evening around 6pm.

Many attendees wept as Martin Abrahams, spiritual leader of Southport Hospital, spoke, saying, “Clearly the crowds tonight show we want to stand together.”

His speech was interrupted twice, first by a man shouting “we stick together,” and then by calls for paramedics.

Nearby, authorities arrested a man carrying a flick knife.

Meanwhile, a mile away on St Luke’s Road, a rally promoted by far-right social media accounts began to gather.

Masked individuals and some holding beer assembled near the memorial outside the police cordon on Hart Street.

By night’s end, chaos ensued with an attempted attack on a mosque.

Rioters dismantled walls to throw bricks, along with bins, beer cans, and traffic cones. Vehicles were set ablaze, and police officers were injured.

Southport Mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein was escorted from the building as rioters “started to burn the fences and throw burning stuff at the windows.”

Rioters chanted “no surrender” and “English till I die.”

Ibrahim described the ordeal, stating, “They smashed all the windows, broke all the fences, and the chanting and anger were overwhelming for all of us.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed that rioters would “feel the full force of the law,” but riots continued to escalate and spread throughout the week.

The riots adopted a distinctly racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-refugee tone, with chants of “stop the boats,” “take our country back,” and “save our kids.”

Hotels housing asylum seekers and a refugee family’s home were targeted, with rioters often chanting “burn it down” or “get them out.”

Black and Asian men, including taxi drivers and pedestrians, were attacked. Mosques faced violence in most riots.

Numerous shops were looted.

Political scientist Vincente Valentim from the University of Oxford suggested anti-immigrant rhetoric from politicians might be to blame.

On X, Valentim said, “Citizens with these views already feel more comfortable acting on them after the election.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blamed a breakdown of law and order.

Anonymous TikTok accounts have been linked to some violence, sharing inflammatory posts calling for mass deportations before riots.

These posts were shared in Telegram channels and on X by larger accounts, despite often being new with no followers.

Sky News found a pattern in the lead-up to the Southport riot, indicating a coordinated effort to incite violence nationwide.

Dozens of protests were planned for the weekend, with roughly 20 turning violent.

Cities like Liverpool and Manchester saw multiple protests, some more violent than others.

Liverpool’s protests ended in hugs outside a mosque on Friday, but a library burned down in a riot on Saturday.

A Holiday Inn Express housing asylum seekers was set on fire in Rotherham on Sunday.

Riots also occurred in Southport, London, Aldershot, Hartlepool, Hull, Nottingham, Bristol, Blackpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Belfast, Bolton, and Portsmouth.