A 17-year-old boy was remanded in custody by a judge on Thursday over the knife attack on children in Southport, which sparked a series of protests and clashes with police in several towns across the UK.
As the protests spread to London, where more than 100 demonstrators were arrested, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called an emergency meeting with police chiefs later today.
He promised the utmost firmness in the face of the violence attributed to anti-immigration sympathisers and fuelled by speculation on social networks about the profile of the suspect in the attack which cost the lives of three young girls on Monday during a dance class.
Axel Rudakubana, 17, whose identity was finally revealed midday on Thursday, arrived under heavy police escort at Liverpool Magistrates Court.
Dressed in a grey tracksuit, he smiled at the many journalists attending the hearing before sitting in the glass box reserved for the accused.
He then pulled his long-sleeved shirt up over his face to above his nose and kept his head down, not speaking during the hearing, which lasted about five minutes.
The judge decided to place him in provisional detention in a juvenile facility, following his indictment on Wednesday evening for the murder of the three girls and ten attempted murders.
” Enough is enough “
Eight other children and two adults were also injured in the attack, which happened during a dance class on Monday. Two of the injured children have been released from hospital, the hospital said on Thursday.
The knife attack, which came amid a rise in knife violence in the UK, and unverified rumours about the suspect’s identity and religion, sparked anger that in some places led to violence.
After an evening of clashes in Southport on Tuesday, during which protesters, described by police as supporters of the far-right English Defence League (EDL), attacked a mosque and injured more than 50 police officers, tensions spread on Wednesday.
In London, several hundred people, carrying English flags, demonstrated in front of Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister.
Some shouted slogans such as “enough is enough” and “stop the boats”, referring to the rubber dinghies on which migrants cross the Channel to come to the UK.
Others chanted the name of EDL founder and former leader Tommy Robinson, still an influential figure on Britain’s hard right, and MP Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
One protester told AFP that the Southport attack was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”: “We’ve had enough.”
Promise of firmness
Police said they arrested 111 people.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday condemned “unacceptable” violence by “divisive” people.
Protests took place in other towns, such as Hartlepool (north-east) where individuals set fire to a police car and threw projectiles at officers, “several of whom were slightly injured”, according to the police, who believe that the demonstration “is linked to the incident in Southport”. Eight people were arrested.
Gatherings also took place in Manchester, where around forty people gathered in front of a hotel housing asylum seekers, according to the local press, and in Aldershot (southern England), again in front of a hotel.
Faced with these excesses, Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to assure police officials on Thursday afternoon of the government’s “full support” for the police, Downing Street said in a statement.
He also intends to recall that “if the right to demonstrate peacefully must be protected at all costs […] Criminals who exploit this right to sow hatred and commit violent acts will face the full force of the law,” the same source added.