WHY WERE THEY TAKEN FROM US?

GRIEVING families and friends of three angelic schoolgirls stabbed to death during a dance class are left devastated as to why such evil has been visited upon them.

- Chris Riches

They were killed by a hooded male who stormed the holiday activity group in Southport, leaving eight other children wounded five of them in a critical condition - and two adults fighting for life.

But with police last night still quizzing a 17-year-old suspect arrested over the ferocious knife attack there appeared to be no obvious motive.

Bebe King, aged just six, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, all died despite heroic efforts by emergency crews at the traumatic, bloody scene on Merseyside that was described as resembling a "horror movie".

Eleven people including critically wounded dance teachers Leanne Lucas and Heidi Barlow, both 35, were rushed to three hospitals. Alice's distraught parents paid a heartfelt tribute to their "Princess" telling her to "keep smiling and dancing".

The girls were stabbed at a Taylor Swiftthemed dance workshop and yesterday the US singer gave her emotional response to the attack. Swift, 34, wrote on Instagram: "These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families."

Bebe's shattered family said: "No words can describe the devastation that has hit our family as we try to deal with the loss of our little girl."

In their tearful tribute to Alice, Madeira-born mum Alexandra and her dad David wrote: "Keep smiling and dancing like you love to do our Princess, like we said before to you, you're always our princess and no one would change that. Love from Your Hero Daddy and Mummy."

Alice's aunt Carina Aguiar added: "Princess Alice, in this moment of such pain it hurts the soul, it hurts the body, it hurts the mind. A lump in the throat you were just an innocent child, a happy girl smiling who had a bright life ahead of her."

As local residents flocked to the scene yesterday to lay flowers and hold a vigil, Keon Tysoe, 50, summed up the mood, saying: "Why? We need that answered.