Southport stabbing latest: Police say four arrests in Southport riot and ‘more will follow’

Sharon Barbour
BBC Look North

A man who was stabbed as he tried to stop the knife attack in Southport on Monday tells the BBC he was “saddened” he could not have done more to protect the girls who died.

Jonathan Hayes – who runs a business next door to the Southport studio where the attack took place – was in a critical condition after being stabbed in the leg and has undergone major surgery.

From his hospital bed, he tells the BBC he does not see himself as a hero. Instead, he says: “Some would say confronting a guy wielding a hunting knife is utter madness.”

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar died in the attack.

Eight children, Hayes, and one other adult, were also injured, with several in a critical condition.

Hayes ran to the studio after hearing the screams. As he tried to step in to save children, he came under attack himself.

He had surgery on Tuesday. He expects to be in hospital for some time, because he currently “can’t walk”.