“Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our princess,” Aguiar’s parents said in a statement released by police. “Like we said before to you, you’re always our princess and no one would change that.”

King’s family said no words could describe their devastation at the loss “of our little girl Bebe.”

Eight children and two adults remained hospitalized after the attack in Southport. Both adults and five of the children were in critical condition.

An emotional crowd that gathered in Southport outside the Atkinson theater and museum in the early evening held a minute of silence for the victims.

June Burns, the mayor of neighboring Sefton, called for calm and respect and urged people to be good to one another. She said she was overcome with emotion when she visited the scene of the tragedy earlier.

“It’s unbelievable that we find ourselves laying flowers for little girls who just wanted to dance,” she said.

Swift said earlier on Instagram that she was “completely in shock” and still taking in “the horror” of the event.

“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she wrote. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

People left flowers and stuffed animals in tribute at a police cordon on the street lined with brick houses in the seaside resort near Liverpool where the beach and pier attract vacationers from across northwest England. They also posted online messages of support for teacher Leanne Lucas, the organizer of the event, who was one of those attacked.

Witnesses described scenes “from a horror movie” as bloodied children ran from the attack just before noon Monday. The 17-year-old suspect was arrested soon afterward on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, and had lived for years in a village about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Southport. He has not yet been charged.

The rampage is the latest shocking attack in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more to clamp down on bladed weapons, which are by far the most commonly used instruments in U.K. homicides.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was jeered by some as he visited the crime scene and lay a wreath of pink and white flowers with a handwritten note that said: “Our hearts are broken, there are no words for such profound loss. The nation’s thoughts are with you.”

“How many more children?” one person yelled at Starmer was getting in his car. “Our kids are dead and you’re leaving already?”

Starmer told reporters earlier that he is determined to get a grip on high levels of knife crime but said it was not a day for politics.