Monster Axel Rudakubana killed young girls Bebe King, six, Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, as well as inflicting serious injuries on others
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Southport attack yoga teacher Leanne Lucas recounts tragic scenes
A hero yoga teacher has revealed how she helped other children escape the deadly Southport attack despite having been stabbed in the arm.
Yoga teacher Leanne Lucas recalled in the morning before attack, asking one of the girls how they were feeling before they replied: “This is the best day of my life.” Just moments later monster Axel Rudakubana carried out his savage stabbing spree.
The July 29 attack during a Taylor Swift-themed dance party at the Hart Space in Southport, Merseyside, ended in the deaths of Bebe King, six, Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, with nine children and two adults being injured. Rudakubana was last month sentenced to 52 years behind bars.
Ms Lucas told BBC Panorama that she alerted 999 as Rudakubana chased after them. She added: “I just knew that if I didn’t get out, everyone was going to die.”
The teacher had recalled how moments before she asked one of the girls how they were feeling and they said: “This is the best day of my life.” Ms Lucas suffered stab wounds to her spine, head, ribs, her lung and shoulder blade.
Despite her injuries, Ms Lucas was able to get herself and several of the girls away and called the police. She said: “I just knew that If didn’t get out everyone was going to die,” she told us, wiping tears from her eyes.
“He was bigger than me. And I just thought: I need to get some help. So we all run towards the door. We were shouting: ‘Run.’ I called 999 on the landing and I asked for the police.”
At Rudakubana’s sentencing, the judge said Ms Lucas had “tried to save as many children as she could” and that “she did all she could before escaping.”
A girl, now 14, whose identity has been protected by a court order, sat alongside her parents to tell how she and another “incredible” girl helped other children. She had been helping to run the dance class when Rudakubana carried out his attack, stabbing her.
The girl, who was given the name Sarah by the BBC, was one of the first to be attacked by Rudakubana. She added: “I saw him stab a child in front of me.
“And then I saw the knife coming towards me and him coming towards me. And that’s when I saw it go into my arm. And that’s when I turned and he must have got my back, but I didn’t feel it at the time, because of the adrenaline.”
Sarah suffered life-threatening injuries and fractures to two of her spinal vertebrae in the attack. She continued to tell the BBC: “I remember seeing the girls all like huddling around the stairs.
“So I remember shouting for them to get down and get out. So I was physically pushing them down the stairs to get everyone out. I thought that he wasn’t going to stop until he killed everyone. I thought that he wanted to kill us all.”
Sarah also managed to lead several other children from the Hart Space and took them up the driveway and across the street to a local resident who let them into the house. The local resident, named Steve by the BBC, described Sarah as a “hero.”
He added: “She led all them kids away.”
