3 kids dead, 8 wounded in English stabbing. 17 yr old being held.

5 of the kids are in critical condition and 2 additional adults were stabbed.

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The person responsible for a mass stabbing in Southport, England, on Monday has been identified as a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales, to immigrants from Rwanda. Law enforcement has not named him, citing legal reasons—although the authorities can name minors involved in serious crimes if they believe it is in the public interest.

It is now confirmed that the stabber, who is in police custody with no motive for his attack disclosed, targeted a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class for children aged six to 11. Two children have died, while another nine are wounded, with six in critical condition as of the time of publication. Police say the case is not being treated as terror-related “at this moment in time.”

Dance teacher Leanne Lucas, 35, was also stabbed, and is reportedly in critical condition. Fellow teacher Heidi Barlow, also 35, suffered less severe injuries. Another adult, 63-year-old Jonathan Hayes, requires surgery after being stabbed in the leg. The businessman, working in an office in the same building as the dance studio, had rushed to the scene of the attack and put himself between the knifeman and the children, attempting to disarm him.

“The dance studio is tucked away down a little alley, you wouldn’t know that there was a children’s dance studio there just by walking past—you would have to have known it was there,” the businessman’s wife told the press, adding her husband is “very upset that he wasn’t able to be more help.”The Southport stabbings come roughly a year after Syrian asylum seeker Abdalmasih Hanoun stabbed multiple babies and toddlers, including a British child, and two elderly men in a public park in Annecy, France.