LONDON (AP):

A teenage boy with a knife attacked a children’s dance and yoga class in northwest England on Monday, killing two children and wounding 11 other people in a “ferocious” rampage that sent bloodied children running into a street to escape the horror, police and witnesses said.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in the attack in Southport, a seaside town near Liverpool, Merseyside police said. The motive was not clear, but police said detectives were not treating the attack as terror-related.

Nine children were wounded, six of them in critical condition. Two wounded adults who tried to protect them also were in critical condition, police said.

“We believe the adults who were injured were bravely trying to protect the children who were being attacked,” Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said.

The Taylor Swift-themed workshop was held on the first week of school vacation for children age about six to 11. An advertisement for the two-hour session promised yoga, dance and bracelet making.

Witnesses described hearing blood-curdling screams and seeing children covered in blood.

“They were in the road, running from the nursery,” said Bare Varathan, who owns a shop nearby. “They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere,” indicating neck, back and chest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrendous and deeply shocking”.

Merseyside police said officers were called at about noon to an address in Southport, a seaside town of about 100,000 people near Liverpool. It called it a “major incident”, but said there was no wider threat to the public.

The suspect, who has not been identified, lived in a village about five miles (eight kilometres) from the site of the attack, police said. He is originally from Cardiff, Wales.