BBC Panorama The Southport Attack: Survivors speak out about horrific tragedy - how to watch

Alice Da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, died after Axel Rudakubana carried out a frenzied knife attack during a Taylor Swift-themed children's holiday club class at the Hart Space.

The programme will see reporter Judith Moritz meet survivors of the horrendous attack and the people who put themselves in harm’s way to try to protect the children. She also explores how the authorities missed so many warning signs about the attacker.

Among those interviewed for the one hour programme is Leanne Lucas, the brave yoga teacher who managed to help children escape the Hart Space despite being stabbed five times. Speaking to BBC Panorama, Ms Lucas said: “He (Rudakubana) was bigger than me and I just thought I need to get some help. So, we were shouting: ‘Run’, and I call 999 from the landing and ask for the police. (I) just wanted everyone to get out of the building.

“I just kept saying: ‘There’s children inside. There’s children inside’ … My brain’s going 100 miles an hour but my body won’t do anything.

“And then people are asking me questions and I’m just saying: ‘Go and get the children.’ I just don’t know what else I could’ve done … You just don’t feel brave when you’re the adult … The police said we’d all be dead if me and Heidi hadn’t done what we’d done, and that gives nothing for like the children who did die. Like, that doesn’t take that away.”

A fourteen-year-old girl who was helping to run the class - whom the BBC are calling Sarah - also spoke to Panorama. She said: “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 … I remember his eyes the most, because he looked possessed and not human … 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. I thought that he wasn’t going to stop until he killed everyone.”

Sarah, who was thirteen at the time of the attack, was left with life-threatening injuries and fractures to two of her spinal vertebrae.

BBC Panorama: The Southport Attack will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 8.00pm on Monday. February 24.