The priest set to preside over the funeral of one of three children killed in the Southport attacks said her parents were “surrounded by love”.

Alice da Silva Aguair, nine, died alongside Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, when a knifeman attacked a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on 29 July.

Father John Heneghan, who knew Alice and her family well, is due to preside over her funeral later at St Patrick’s church in Marshside Road.

He told BBC Radio Merseyside his abiding memory of Alice was of a “wonderfully happy girl” who brought “joy to her mum and dad”.

Father Heneghan said: “She was lovely little girl, full of life. The most glorious smile you’ve ever seen.

“The smile that would light up your heart no matter what troubles you might have.

“You would break into a smile, you couldn’t not, because it was like a rainbow smile.”

Alice’s parents, “devout Catholics” Sergio and Alexandra, attended a celebration of life mass at St Patrick’s on Tuesday.

Father Heneghan said he was struck by the “look of love” on their faces and the “dignified, beautiful tears that came gently from their eyes”.

He said: “They are wonderful people, and have got a wonderful family around them.

“They are Portuguese, Madeira, and they have a wonderful support network, they’re very close.”

Father Heneghan said the couple were also feeling “wonderfully supported” by the community in Southport and had felt “how much love there is out there”.

Speaking of the town generally, he said people were “very bruised and would be for a long time”.

However he added: “I can’t speak for all of Southport, but the people I meet I just see and encounter so much goodness, so much passion, so much loved poured out for those who are caught up in this attack directly and indirectly.”

Father Heneghan said many people in the town were “horrified” by how the attacks had been used in the violence that followed, as widespread disorder erupted across the UK.

One target of that disorder was the Southport Mosque on St Luke’s Road, which was damaged by far-right rioters throwing bricks and other missiles on 30 July.

Ibrahim Hussein, the imam and chairman of the mosque, said he and his congregation were “grieving like the whole community”.

“We are still in shock, we are still upset, still unclear of why what happened, happened”, he said.

“It doesn’t make any sense to us.”

He said, however, the community in Southport had shown “we are with you 100%” by helping with the clean-up and repair effort after the trouble.

“Whoever did this trouble, they mostly came from outside the town and they know nothing about Southport”, he added.

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