UK attack suspect not a Muslim or asylum-seeker as claimed by far-right

UK authorities have revealed the identity of the suspect of a stabbing attack that killed three young girls and wounded several other children, confirming that the identity used by Islamophobic groups to fuel the anti-Muslim riots was fake.

The suspect was named on Thursday as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in the UK to Rwandan parents. Local media reported the suspect comes from a family "heavily involved with the local church."

But the false information spread by far-right groups led to anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots even as mobs also clashed with police outside a mosque, the first of several violent riots across the country.

By the time a judge said the teen suspect could be identified, rumours were already rife and far-right influencers had pinned the blame on immigrants and Muslims.

"There's a parallel universe where what was claimed by these rumours were the actual facts of the case," said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that looks at issues including integration and national identity. "And that will be a difficult thing to manage."

Local lawmaker Patrick Hurley said the result was "hundreds of people descending on the town, descending on Southport from outside of the area, intent on causing trouble — either because they believe what they've written, or because they are bad faith actors who wrote it in the first place, in the hope of causing community division."

The 17-year-old suspect was not initially named due to rules regarding children who are charged with crimes, before a judge then ruled that media could name him as Axel Rudakubana.

He turns 18 next week, and police have said he was born in Cardiff.

Storm of misinformation

A claim that the suspect was an asylum seeker or immigrant has been viewed at least 15.7 million times across X, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, a Reuters news agency analysis showed.

A false claim that he was an undocumented migrant and a Muslim who arrived in a small boat appeared on the website "Channel 3 Now", which later apologised for publishing misinformation that led to the violent riots.

Internet personality Andrew Tate on Tuesday shared a picture of a man he said was responsible for the attack with the caption "straight off the boat", but the claim was also incorrect as it was a picture of a 51-year-old man arrested for a separate stabbing in Ireland last year.

Separately, a Channel 4 analysis showed that 49 percent of traffic on social media platform X referencing 'Southport Muslim' — in reference to an unevidenced claim about the attacker's religion — came from the United States, with 30 percent coming from Britain.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned social media companies that they must uphold laws that prohibit the incitement of violence online after this series of events.

Starmer said that the disturbances were not legitimate protests, saying it was criminal disorder that was "clearly driven by far-right hatred" before adding a warning to tech companies.

"Let me also say to large social media companies, and those who run them, violent disorder clearly whipped up online: that is also a crime. It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere," he said at a news conference, adding there was a "balance to be struck" in handling such platforms.