Police mentioned officers had been known as to the incident shortly earlier than 1100 GMT on Monday, simply minutes earlier than the dance occasion was scheduled to finish.
Armed officers detained the suspect close by and seized a knife.
The suspect was in custody at a police station Tuesday and police mentioned enquiries had been ongoing “to ascertain the motive for this tragic incident”.
Focused assaults on youngsters are extraordinarily uncommon within the UK.
“HORROR MOVIE”
Monday’s incident evoked reminiscences of a faculty bloodbath within the Scottish city of Dunblane in 1996, which claimed the lives of 16 younger pupils and their instructor in Britain’s worst mass capturing.
The North West Ambulance Service mentioned it handled 11 casualties with stab accidents, who had been then taken by ambulance and helicopter to Alder Hey Youngsters’s Hospital and different hospitals within the space.
Native enterprise proprietor Colin Parry, one of many individuals who known as police, advised the Press Affiliation (PA) information company that he believed a number of “younger women” had been stabbed.
A member of his employees additionally noticed “about 10 youngsters go operating previous him, all bleeding, and certainly one of them collapsed on the ground outdoors the neighbour subsequent door,” he recounted.
Naked Varathan, who owns an area store, advised PA he noticed “seven to 10 youngsters” who had been “injured, bleeding”.
Different witnesses advised UK media they heard screams, evaluating the assault to a scene from a horror movie.
King Charles III supplied his “most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies” and known as the incident “completely horrific”.
Prince William and his spouse Katherine posted on X that “as dad and mom, we can not start to think about what the households, associates and family members of these killed and injured in Southport at this time are going by means of”, calling it a “heinous assault”.