Yoga teacher recalls horror of Southport attack: 'We'd all be dead'

A YOGA teacher, Leanne Lucas, told BBC Panorama of the events at a dance and yoga workshop held at Hart Space studio in Southport last July.

Leanne, who was stabbed five times by attacker Axel Rudakubana, said she helped evacuate children from the room. "I just knew that if I didn't get out, everyone was going to die," she said.

Leanne recounted that Rudakubana arrived by taxi wearing a bright green hoodie and a medical face mask. Dashcam footage showed him trying a locked door before entering the studio.

"He opened the door and grabbed a child. I don't know what he was doing. I didn't see anything. He then grabbed the next child, and the next child. And then I shout: 'Who is that?'" she said.

A 13-year-old, known as Sarah and now 14, who assisted with the class, told the BBC that Rudakubana looked "possessed" as he stabbed her.

"I saw him stab a child in front of me. And then I saw the knife coming towards me and him coming towards me. And that's when I saw it go into my arm. And that's when I turned and he must have got my back, but I didn't feel it at the time, because of the adrenaline," she said.

Sarah led several children, including her younger sister, to safety. "I remember seeing the girls all like huddling around the stairs. So I remember shouting for them to get down and get out. So I was physically pushing them down the stairs to get everyone out," she added.

During the attack, three children – nine-year-old Alice Aguiar, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and six-year-old Bebe King – were killed and ten people were injured.

Neighbours and other witnesses assisted in evacuating the children. Leanne and Sarah later expressed shock over missed warning signs about Rudakubana.

"It's so shocking how much evidence they had on him, how he slipped through the net," Leanne stated.

Rudakubana pleaded guilty to three charges of murder and ten of attempted murder and was sentenced to 52 years in prison.

Leanne, recovering from life-saving surgery, said, "The police said we'd all be dead if me and Heidi [fellow organiser] hadn't done what we'd done and that gives nothing for the children who did die... that doesn't take that away."