As I reassured friends we were safe, I knew many families in Southport tragically couldn't say the same

The horrific events in Southport on Monday made headlines around the world as three children were killed and 11 other people were stabbed in a ferocious knife attack at a school holiday club for children aged six to 11.

Merseyside Police said a man, armed with a knife, walked into the Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga workshop and started stabbing people. A 17-year-old boy from Banks, in Lancashire, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

As we received eyewitness statements - a mother running down the road screaming 'my child has been stabbed', young girls running out of the dance studio injured and bleeding, casualties lying in the street - it was clear this 'major incident' would be seen by families in living rooms all over the globe.

As my phone buzzed with people checking if my family was okay, I, like most of us, was in the fortunate position to say 'yes, we are fine'. But at that same moment, too many traumatised families and an entire community in Southport were not able to say the same. Their lives had been changed forever.

Three children are dead. Eight more lay in hospitals, many of them in a critical condition. Mums and dads had sent their children off to a school holiday camp, like parents all over the country, thinking they would be safe.

By Monday evening and Tuesday morning, other parents in the community were hugging their own children tightly as they laid flowers on Hart Street. Residents were still shaking their heads in shock and disbelief as they were interviewed by the gathered national media.

But when the reporters have dissipated and the police cordon is gone, the Southport community that remains will still be trying to put their lives back together. Neighbours insist it is a tight community who look after each other.

Evidence of that could be seen from the moment the attack began. One of the adults injured while defending the children was local businessman Jonathan Hayes, 63, who ran into the dance studio from his office next door after hearing screams.

Colin Parry, the owner of the Masters Vehicle Body Repairs 50 metres or so from the scene of the attack, raised the alarm and his colleague carried a young girl who was covered in blood and was trying to keep her alive.

Nurses and dog walkers stopped to help and local churches have opened their doors for anybody who wants to talk. The community is already pulling together and they will need to on the long road ahead.

Perhaps the note on a bunch of flowers laid at the scene of the previously quiet residential street puts it best: "And through this devastation with tears, can barely cope. Our love to be ongoing. We cling to future hope."