Southport murders: How Axel Rudakubana's horror 12 minute attack unfolded as chilling new details of knife rampage emerge
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Screaming children were stabbed in the back in the Southport massacre as they tried to flee from mass murderer Axel Rudakubana. The 18-year-old was armed with a kitchen knife as he entered the studio in Hart Street just before midday, where 26 children had gathered for a Taylor Swift themed dance class.
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Hood up and masked, Rudakubana used the black-handled Cerbera kitchen knife with a 20cm blade to attack children that he grabbed indiscriminately. Horrifying CCTV footage shows he grabbed the youngster closest to the entrance, then moved through the room systematically stabbing as many children as he could before they could escape him.
A child is seen on CCTV trying to escape the building, before being pulled back in. She is later seen stumbling from the building and collapsing. As the horrified children run from the studio, Rudakubana chased after them, stabbing them in their backs.
He also knifed Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes, who was working in the office next door and bravely tried to stop the carnage. Witnesses described young girls running from the studio into the street, bleeding from multiple stab wounds, during the 12 minute attack.
Rudakubana has been referred three times to the government’s counter extremist scheme prevent in the years before the massacre. He had a deep-seated obsession with violence and particularly mass murderer, and after the killings he was found to have documents about Nazi Germany, the Rwandan genocide and car bombs on his computer.
