A week before launching a knife attack on a Southport dance class Axel Rudakubana had attempted to travel to his former school as pupils broke up for the summer holidays, it is understood.

The 18-year-old booked a taxi to go to Range High School in Formby on July 22, the PA news agency understands, seven days before he would travel by taxi to The Hart Space and murder Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.

On both occasions he is said to have been wearing the same outfit – a green hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, despite the summer temperatures, and a surgical mask.

Ten minutes after his taxi was booked, at 12.30pm, pupils were due to leave the school premises on their last day of term, it is understood.

On July 22, however, his father followed him out of the house and pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him.

Rudakubana, 18, was permanently excluded from the secondary school over claims he was carrying a knife and later returned to attack someone with a hockey stick, PA understands.

Aged 17 at the time of the attack, Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents and had moved with his family to the village of Banks in Lancashire about a decade ago.

Neighbours described the family as unremarkable, but it can now be reported that teachers had concerns about his behaviour from when he entered Year 9.

Rudakubana was excluded in around 2019 after telling Childline that he was being racially bullied and was bringing a knife into school to protect himself, it is understood.

It is not known if he was being bullied or if he ever brought a weapon into the school while he was a pupil.

After his exclusion, he returned to the school and assaulted someone with a hockey stick, the intended target being a former bully or someone he had a grievance with, it is understood.

It is understood Rudakubana then attended two specialist schools, The Acorns School in Lancashire and Presfield High School & Specialist College in Southport, and teachers were concerned about his behaviour.

His in-person attendance at Presfield was less than 1%, it is understood.