Published: 29 July ‘2025 | The English Chronicle Desk
A year after the horrific knife attack at a children’s summer holiday event in Southport, a young survivor has come forward with a harrowing account of her experience, revealing both the trauma she endured and her determination to spark change. Speaking to Sky News, the girl—whose identity remains protected for legal reasons—recalled the terrifying moments when she was stabbed by Axel Rudakubana during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class that ended in tragedy.
On 29 July 2024, Rudakubana launched a brutal knife attack at a community centre where dozens of children had gathered for the event. The massacre left three young girls—six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar—dead, and eight others injured. The survivor, who was among those wounded, described the moment the attacker stormed the room and stabbed her in both the back and the arm.
“I just thought that I was going to die,” she said, reflecting on the panic and chaos. “There was a bunch of girls huddled around so I just started pushing them down the stairs, telling them to get out and run.”
She remembered the attack with chilling clarity, especially the look in the attacker’s eyes. “They just didn’t look human,” she said. “They looked possessed.” Describing the experience as surreal, she likened it to watching herself act in a nightmare she couldn’t escape.
The trauma of that day is still very much alive, and though she is physically healing, she admits the emotional wounds are far deeper. “A lot of anger and sadness,” she said quietly, when asked how she feels about the loss of the three young girls. The memories are raw, the grief ongoing, and the survivor acknowledges that all of those present that day carry psychological scars that may never fully heal.
In January, Rudakubana was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 52 years. The presiding judge called the massacre “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history.” His sentencing brought some measure of justice, but no closure for those forever altered by the events.
In response to her ordeal, the young girl has channeled her pain into activism. She is now campaigning for mandatory first aid training in schools, aiming to prepare children to respond to emergencies—including knife attacks. Her efforts are supported by a clothing brand, “Go Anywhere, Be Anything”, which raises funds and awareness about the dangers of knife crime among youth.
“Everyone that’s going out and carrying knives is getting younger and younger,” she warned. “To think that it’s people my age—it’s disgusting.” Her campaign seeks to educate and empower children while drawing national attention to the growing threat of knife violence.
On the anniversary of the attack, a three-minute silence was observed in Southport at 3pm, with flags lowered across the town. In an open letter to residents, Sefton Council expressed deep sympathy and solidarity with the families of the victims and all who were affected, including those who witnessed the attack or were first on the scene to help.
“This period is incredibly hard for the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie and all of those children and adults injured or who suffered lifelong psychological impact,” the letter read. “We must not forget the local people who rushed to support and to our emergency responders. They all remain always in our thoughts.”
The young survivor echoed that sentiment, adding that even though her physical injuries are healing, the emotional toll remains.
“You live in fear every day that it could happen again,” she said. “Obviously, my scars stay as a reminder but everyone from that day is going to have mental scars forever.”
Her story is not just one of survival, but of remarkable courage, resilience, and an urgent call for change. In the face of unimaginable horror, she is determined to ensure that the lives lost were not in vain—and that future tragedies might be prevented by empowering the next generation with knowledge, compassion, and preparedness.
