On Wednesday morning, residents were busy repairing damaged streets with brooms and shovels after violent protests in which police were pelted with bricks, stones and bottles and cars were set on fire.
Following the unrest on Tuesday evening, dozens of residents gathered outside the Southport mosque.
According to the North West Ambulance Service, 27 police officers were taken to hospital and another 12 were treated at the scene. Police dogs were also reported to have been injured.
The violence came as mourners gathered in the seaside town of Southport for a vigil in honour of nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, who were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-style holiday club on Monday.
The chaos also resulted in cars being destroyed and shops being looted.
Norman Wallis, managing director of Southport Pleasureland, said people had travelled from outside the town to cause chaos, leaving locals to clean up the mess.
Southport Mosque chairman Ibrahim Hussein said: “I really want to say a huge, huge thank you to the police.
“I am very sorry that the police have suffered victims. They were beaten very badly. I would like to make amends, but there is nothing I can do about it.
“But I want to thank them for their support because at one point we thought they (the rioters) would come and burn the place down.”
Mr Hussein said the Muslim community still felt vulnerable and the mosque was open. He added: “I will pray for the whole of Southport, I will pray for the victims of the terrible attack on Monday, I will pray for the police and I will pray that the whole community remains as beautiful as it has always been.”
He described the attack on the dance class as “absolutely heartbreaking.”
Locals have brought flowers to the mosque and are helping to organize repairs to the building, which Mr Hussein described as “humiliating.”
The Southport community has also rallied behind a shop owner whose store was looted during the unrest on Tuesday night, he said.
Chanaka Balasuryla said he called 999 after seeing men on the security camera of his house, five minutes away, trying to force their way in.
He said he was “horrified” when he thought they were going to set fire to the building because a woman and her daughter lived in an apartment above it.
He added that he later found out that the woman confronted the robbers and told them it was her business to stop them.
“I slept for a few hours and then got a call saying, ‘You have to come down, there are a lot of people waiting to help,'” Mr Balasuryla said.
“Last night was terrible, (but) I feel safe again because people are here to protect us.”
Even children have helped repair the streets by sweeping away the rubble. Locals have come together to restore a sense of community.
This report brought tears to my eyes: the people of Southport: children, locals, sweeping around the mosque, shaking hands with mosque members, offering balm after far-right vandalism and rioting. They are a slap in the face to those who seek division. This is community. pic.twitter.com/DrqkzMoUXZ
— Remona Aly (@RemonaAly) July 31, 2024
Volunteers came to the junction of Sussex Road and St Luke’s Road, partly in response to a call from Mr Wallis on social media.
He said: “It is appalling what those hooligans did last night.
“It was like a war zone. People from outside the city were causing absolute chaos.”
“People in hoods climbed lamp posts, threw bricks and set fire to a police car.
“But none of those people were the people of Southport. The people of Southport are here today cleaning up the mess.”
“These people from out of town – they came in buses and cars and had a change of clothes. They just started rioting and doing things like that.”
Merseyside Police said that “a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League” – began throwing objects such as bricks towards the mosque in the seaside town at around 7.45pm.
Scotland’s former First Minister Humza Yousaf called for the EDL to be banned under terror laws following the riots, although former leader Tommy Robinson insisted the group no longer existed.
Officers put on helmets and protective gear after they were pelted with stones and bottles and police vehicles were damaged and set on fire.
In a social media post, police said “stores had been broken into and looted,” adding that “those responsible will be brought to justice.”
Elsie’s mother, Jenni Stancombe, wrote on Facebook: “This is the only thing I will write but please, please stop the violence in Southport tonight.”
“The police have behaved heroically over the last 24 hours and neither they nor we need something like that.”
The disturbing scenes resulted in 27 officers being taken to hospital and 12 others being treated and discharged at the scene, the North West Ambulance Service said.
According to Merseyside Police, eight officers suffered serious injuries, including broken bones, cuts, a suspected broken nose and a concussion.
Police Commissioner Serena Kennedy said the officers injured in Tuesday’s protests would “now be unavailable for duty at an incredibly busy time for the police force.”
Videos posted on social media showed people throwing trash cans and bricks at police officers using riot shields to push back the crowd.
Merseyside Police Federation chairman Chris McGlade said more than 50 officers were injured in a “sustained and brutal attack”.
He added: “Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers. Sons and daughters. Husbands, wives and partners.”
“We should go home at the end of our shifts. Not to the hospital.”
The violent protests were preceded by a peaceful vigil for the victims of the stabbing outside the Atkinson Arts Centre in Southport, with many tearfully laying flowers and memorial cards.
In addition to the three children killed, eight other young people suffered stab wounds, five of whom were in critical condition. Two other adults were also seriously injured, police said.
The vigil was followed by a protest outside the mosque, during which demonstrators chanted right-wing extremist slogans and clashes with police on St. Luke’s Road.
Patrick Hurley, MP for Southport, said in a speech on Wednesday that the rioters should face the “full force of the law” because they were “completely disrespectful to the families of the dead and injured children”.
He condemned “drunken thugs” who threw bricks and told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Even if it turns out that this 17-year-old boy is a Muslim, that under no circumstances justifies an attack on a mosque by anyone.”
False claims had been spread on the Internet that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had come to Britain by boat.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said rioters had “hijacked” a vigil for the victims and would now “face the full force of the law”, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the unrest as “violent attacks by thugs in the street” which she described as “appalling”.
The suspect, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, is from the village of Banks, just outside Southport. A road in the area was cordoned off by detectives on Monday afternoon.
According to police, the motive for the attack is unclear, but it is not believed to be a terrorist attack.
A 32-year-old Standish man was arrested on suspicion of possession of a switchblade knife on Eastbank Street, near where the vigil took place on Tuesday evening.
He was taken into custody and there were no reports of anyone being injured in the incident, Merseyside Police said.
