By Andrew Brown Stand Up For Southport
It will take a long time for people to come to terms with Southport’s darkest day.
What happened earlier is too incomprehensible for words.
Young, primary school children enjoying a Taylor Swift yoga and dance workshop at the start of the school summer holidays should have been among their happiest life experiences.
It is absolutely devastating that two children have been killed while nine youngsters have been severely injured, while two adults are in critical condition.
There are many injuries that will never heal. I don’t know how any of the children there, any of the parents who were at the scene, any family members at home, can begin to cope.
Emergency service workers, often used to dealing with difficult incidents, will have found today utterly traumatising.
Southport today was full of messages of people desperately trying to discover what had happened to loved ones.
Everyone has been left stunned.
Our thoughts and prayers go to everyone affected.
Lots in our community want to do what they can to support others.
Churches, community centres, places of worship have opened their doors for anyone who wants to call in.
There have been huge acts of kindness; the drivers of MD Travel offered to drive family members to any hospital they needed to visit.
If you know of anything like that happening; please let me know and I will publish through Stand Up For Southport, or share through our Stand Up For Southport Facebook group.
There are talks about a possible vigil.
There will be more events and ways of supporting people over the coming days.
We will share as soon as we become aware
Today for the main part was a big unknown. Social media has been awash with speculation, with conspiracy theories. Some comments have been simply vile.
All our posts today have had commenting turned off.
Until the statement released by Merseyside Police tonight, everyone was waiting for facts.
Families are now desperately looking for answers, with the big one being simply – why?
In the meantime it’s about Southport coming together as a community, and supporting all those who need it. All our thoughts are with you.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrownn@gmail.com