Police report 2 children dead and 11 injured in stabbing rampage at dance class in England

LONDON—A stabbing Monday at a children’s dance class in northwest England killed two children and wounded 11 other people, police said, and officers arrested a 17-year-old boy and seized a knife after the bloody rampage.

The teen was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in the stabbing in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool, Merseyside Police said. The motive was not clear, but police said detectives were not treating the attack as terror-related.

Nine children were wounded, six of them in critical condition.

Two wounded adults who tried to shield the pupils were in critical condition, police said.

“We believe the adults who were injured were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked,” Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.

The Taylor Swift-themed workshop was held on the first week of school vacation for children aged about 6 to 11. The two-hour session was led by two women—a yoga instructor and a dance instructor—according to an online listing.

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Witnesses described hearing blood-curdling screams and seeing children covered in blood emerging from the business that hosts everything from pregnancy workshops and meditation sessions to women’s bootcamps.

“They were in the road, running from the nursery,” said Bare Varathan, who owns a shop nearby. “They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,” indicating the neck, back, and chest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrendous and deeply shocking.”

Police were called shortly before noon to a street where several small businesses are located behind rows of brick houses in the city of about 100,000.

The first officers who arrived were shocked to find so many casualties from the “ferocious attack,” most of them children with serious injuries, Ms. Kennedy said.

Colin Parry, an auto body shop owner, said most of the stabbing victims appeared to be young girls.

“The mothers are coming here now and screaming,” Mr. Parry said. “It is like a scene from a horror movie. … It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”

The suspect, who has not been identified, lived in a village about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the site of the attack, police said. He was originally from Cardiff, Wales.