Southport dance teacher was 'stabbed in the back, arms and neck as she used her body to shield children from stabbings'
Leanne Lucas is in hospital
Instagram
A dance teacher who used her body to try to shield young girls from the Southport attacker was stabbed multiple times.
The family of Leanne Lucas revealed how the 35-year-old bundled two people into a storage room and bent over two children to protect them, meaning she received the brunt of the attacker’s blows.
Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Stancombe, seven, were killed in the attack and at least two children are in a critical but stable condition at Alder Hey hospital.
Lucas’s cousin, Chris Rimmer, 41, said she was now awake but had not yet been told all the details of the attack and casualties after undergoing life-saving surgery.
Leanne Lucas is in hospital
Friends in the ambulance service described to Rimmer how his cousin pushed two people into a storage room, saving their lives, and “bent over two little girls” as the attacker came towards them. The family put Lucas on loudspeaker when they spoke to her by phone at around 4pm on Tuesday.
He told The Times: "She put her arms up, all her arms are cut...She’s tiny and she’s as thin as a rake.
"She was just worried about everyone else, I don’t think she’s worried about herself...She’s not self-conscious, if that makes sense. She always thinks about everyone else before herself.
Rimmer added: "Everyone thinks we’re getting told things but we’re not. We’re just sat here waiting like everyone else."
LATEST FROM SOUTHPORT
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attending a memorial
PA
Rimmer added that rumours swirling on social media surrounding the tragic events in Southport made the situation worse.
He added: "We got told she’d passed away, it was all over Facebook. Someone put it up with a picture of the three little girls." However, he said that, "as far as we know", Lucas’s surgery went well and that the family is "feeling a bit better" having spoken to her.
Meanwhile Lucas's aunt Pauline Bennett, described her as someone who always wanted to help children. She said: "She’s only tiny, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against a man with a knife, but she just wanted to protect those children.
“I can’t imagine what she would have been thinking when he came through the door. It all happened so quickly, she just did what she could."
Floral tributes were left near the scene
PA
Floral Tributes were left in Southport
PA
A 17-year-old has been remanded in custody to appear on Thursday, August 1, at Liverpool Magistrates Court, Derby Square charged with the murders of Bebe, Elsie Dot and Alice, 10 counts of attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article.
The teenager legally cannot be named due to his age.
Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Mersey-Cheshire Sarah Hammond said: "We remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.
"It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary, or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."