Taylor Swift meets children involved in Southport knife attack after reaching out to families
TAYLOR Swift has met some of the young dance class survivors from the Southport knife outrage in which three girls died.
The American superstar invited them and family members to Wembley Stadium where she is performing five gigs, hugging some of the starstruck youngsters.
Swift, 34, had been horrified by the July 29 attack in which young girls were allegedly targeted by a knifeman during a dance event in which she was the central theme.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar were killed and six other youngsters were left critically injured.
Appalled Swift, 34, released a statement hours after the tragedy. She said: “The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously and I’m just completely in shock.
“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders.
“These were just little kids at a dance class.
“I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, of Banks, Lancs, who was 17 at the time of the attack, has been charged with three counts of murder. He is also accused of ten counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed article — a curved kitchen knife allegedly used in the attack.
Following the incident, Swift headed to Vienna in Austria where three shows were cancelled following a foiled IS terror plot.
A man, named only as Beran A, 19, admitted planning to run over fans outside a stadium in the city before launching an attack with knives and a “dirty bomb”.
During the search of his home, authorities discovered various substances and tools used for building bombs.
They also found IS propaganda, 21,000 euros in counterfeit money, machetes, knives and blank ammunition.
Last week, we told how Swift had reached out to the families of the children caught up in the Southport attack.
She returned to the UK last week for the final five shows of the British leg of her Eras tour. It is understood she greeted some of the youngsters inside Wembley at one of the gigs, at which they were handed special goody bags.
On her UK return, Swift also invited her close friend, Brit superstar Ed Sheeran, to join her on stage on the first night.
They performed a medley of their 2012 collaboration Everything Has Changed and 2017’s End Game, as well as Ed’s solo single Thinking Out Loud.
A pal told The Sun yesterday: “Ed and Taylor have been friends for well over a decade and they are very close.
“He has seen how the last few weeks have impacted her and he really wanted to be there to support her.
“It meant the world to Taylor to have him there.”
Taylor will perform the final British date of her Eras tour at Wembley tonight before she takes the shows back to America and Canada for more concert dates.