How lies about Southport knife attack suspect led to riots and clashes with police [Video]

As families mourned the death of three young girls killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, riots broke out stoked by disinformation about the suspect’s identity.

Hours after police were called to the scene of a mass stabbing, in which eight other children and two adults were also injured, a riot outside a mosque in Southport led to 39 officers being injured in violent clashes, including 27 who needed hospital treatment.

Footage showed crowds of men – at least one identified by antifascists Red Flare as an alleged member of the far-right Patriotic Alternative group – chanting and throwing bricks at riot police, who held shields to protect against incoming projectiles as a police van was set alight and other fires burned nearby.