Grief, hate and healing: Southport picks up the pieces after week of horror

A vigil in the city centre on Tuesday evening. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

After the singing and dancing, there was screaming. And then silence. Paramedics and firefighters crouched to the ground, ashen-faced, struggling to process the horror they had witnessed.

The blue lights of their vehicles continued to flash two hours after the atrocity but their sirens were turned off, like an emergency on mute. The only sound was from the police helicopter above.