2 Children Killed In Stabbing At Community Center's Taylor Swift-Themed Dance Class

LONDON (AP) — Police say two children have died and nine people have been injured in a stabbing in northwest England.

Merseyside Police said a 17-year-old boy was arrested and a knife seized after the bloody attack Monday in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool.

Police say the attack happened at a community center where a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event for primary school-aged children was held. A nearby shop owner says he saw between seven and 10 bleeding children run from the building.

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

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

LONDON (AP) — At least eight people, some of them children, were injured in a stabbing attack in northwest England on Monday, emergency services said. Police said they detained a 17-year-old male suspect and seized a knife.

A witness described seeing bloodied children running from a community center where a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event for children aged about 6 to 11 was taking place. An advertisement for the event promised “a morning of Taylor Swift-themed yoga, dance and bracelet making.”

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

Merseyside Police said officers were called at about noon to an address in Southport, a seaside town of about 100,000 people near Liverpool. It called it a “major incident” but said there was no wider threat to the public.

Detectives were not treating the attack as terror-related, the force said.

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

The North West Ambulance Service said medics treated eight people with stab