British teenager is accused of stabbing three girls accused of possessing a terror manual

LONDON– The teenager charged over a knife attack that killed three girls at a Taylor Swift dance class in England has been charged with producing the deadly poison ricin and now faces terror charges for possessing a jihadist training manual, the police said on Tuesday.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who is accused of murdering three girls and stabbing 10 other people in July, produced the deadly poison ricin, which was later found in his home, Merseyside police said. Police also found a computer file containing an al-Qaeda training manual titled “Military Studies in Jihad Against the Tyrants.”

Ricin is derived from the castor bean plant and is one of the deadliest toxins in the world. There is no known vaccine or antidote and kills cells by stopping them from making proteins.

Police stressed that the July attack was not classified as a “terrorist incident” for which a motive would need to be known.

Rudakubana, who police said was born in Wales, has already been arrested in three cases over the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in July in the coastal town of Southport in northwest England charged with murder.

He is also charged with ten counts of attempted murder of the eight injured children and two adults.

The knife attacks were used by far-right activists to stoke anger against immigrants and Muslims after misinformation spread on social media that identified him as an asylum seeker and gave his name incorrectly.

The violence spread from Southport and led to riots across England and Northern Ireland that lasted a week.

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This story has been corrected to clarify that the terrorism allegation is related to the jihadist training manual.