UK attacker is neither Muslim nor asylum seeker as claimed by far right groups

UK authorities have revealed the identity of the suspect involved in a stabbing attack that resulted in the deaths of three young girls and injured several other children, confirming that the identity used by Islamophobic groups to incite anti-Muslim riots was false.

On Thursday, the suspect was identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in the UK to Rwandan parents. Local media reported that his family is “heavily involved with the local church.”

However, misinformation spread by far-right groups led to widespread anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots, with mobs clashing with police outside a mosque in what became the first of several violent incidents across the country.

By the time a judge allowed the suspect’s identity to be made public, rumors had already taken hold, and far-right influencers had falsely blamed immigrants and Muslims for the attack.

Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, which focuses on issues such as integration and national identity, remarked, “There’s a parallel universe where what was claimed by these rumors were the actual facts of the case. And that will be a difficult thing to manage.”

Local lawmaker Patrick Hurley noted that the false information led to “hundreds of people descending on the town, descending on Southport from outside of the area, intent on causing trouble — either because they believed what they had read or because they were bad-faith actors who spread it in the first place, hoping to cause community division.”

Initially, the 17-year-old suspect was not named due to legal protections for minors charged with crimes, but a judge later permitted the media to identify him as Axel Rudakubana. Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, turns 18 next week.

Misinformation about the suspect being an asylum seeker or immigrant circulated widely, with a Reuters analysis showing that these claims were viewed at least 15.7 million times across platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

One false claim, that the suspect was an undocumented migrant and Muslim who arrived in the UK by boat, was published on the website “Channel 3 Now,” which later issued an apology for spreading misinformation that contributed to the riots.

Internet personality Andrew Tate also shared a picture of a man he falsely claimed was responsible for the attack, captioning it “straight off the boat.” However, the photo was of a 51-year-old man arrested in Ireland last year for an unrelated stabbing.

Separately, a Channel 4 analysis revealed that 49 percent of social media traffic on X referencing “Southport Muslim” — an unevidenced claim about the attacker’s religion — originated from the United States, while 30 percent came from Britain.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the violence and warned social media companies that they must enforce laws against inciting violence online. He emphasized that the disturbances were not legitimate protests but criminal disorder “clearly driven by far-right hatred.” Starmer also cautioned tech companies, stating, “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 added that there is “a balance to be struck” in managing such platforms.