Charlotte Foster
Legal

Teenager charged with murdering school girls at dance class identified

A court in the UK has identified the 17-year-old boy accused of going on a stabbing rampage at a dance class and killing three young girls. 

The court released the information on Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, in order to stem the flow of misinformation about the suspect that ignited riots around the UK. 

The court said that while Rudakubana would not normally have been publicly named due to the fact that he is still a minor, they made an exception to quash the riots, while also taking into account that he is just days away from his 18th birthday. 

Unrest has been seen outside mosques as protesters target Muslims in the wake of the tragedy, causing police to again confirm that the teen was born in the UK. 

Police said his family are of Rwandan descent where 92 per cent of people identify as Christian, while only 2 per cent of Rwandans are Muslim.

The horror began at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday in Southport, just north of Liverpool in England’s north west, when Rudakubana targeted the young girls and their families. 

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar died after the knife rampage, while eight other children suffered stab wounds and five were in fighting for their life, alongside two adults who were critically injured.

Following the tragedy, large crowds fought with police in the town close to where the tragedy had happened including outside a mosque after false reports emerged that the attacker was Muslim. 

Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff in Wales but lived in the town of Banks in Lancashire, close to Southport, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and a knife possession charged. 

Image credits: Merseyside Police

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legal, stabbing, UK, suspect