avalanche of injured officers –

Merseyside Police have confirmed that more than 50 officers were injured after clashes with protesters who gathered in the town of Southport, near Liverpool, on Tuesday evening to protest the stabbing deaths of three young girls earlier this week. Merseyside Police Federation chairman Chris McGlade said officers had been subjected to “a sustained and vicious attack” by protesters. “Police officers are not robots. We are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands, wives and colleagues,” he said. Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said she was disappointed that the injured officers would be unavailable for some time at a time when the force is “incredibly busy” following multiple stabbings at a childcare centre on Monday. Authorities stress that many of the protesters, some of whom came from other regions, are members of the far-right English Defence League and may have been attracted by false information spread on social media that the attacker was a migrant seeking asylum.

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook acknowledged it was “worrying” that people from other parts of the country had travelled to Southport at night to join the riots, while also calling for “space” for local people to recover from Monday’s tragic incident. The biggest disturbances were in the centre of Southport and also centred outside the local mosque, where cars were set on fire. Several voices in British politics have accused populist MP Nigel Farage of stoking the protests by spreading the hoax that the attack was linked to terrorism.

At least three young girls have died and eight others have been injured, two of them in serious condition, after a Welsh teenager stabbed them multiple times during a dance and yoga class in the British town of Southport, north of Liverpool. Police said a “misspelled name” for the suspect had been circulating on social media and urged people “not to speculate on the details of the incident.”