The families of children killed and wounded by a teenager in a knife rampage that sparked the country's worst riots in years wept in court Thursday as prosecutors described the frenzied attack.

Sobs and gasps were heard as prosecutor Deanna Heer set out details of the stabbing spree by 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July in Southport, northwestern England.

Rudakubana was heard to say: "I'm glad they're dead," after he was arrested, Deanna Heer for the prosecution told the court. She described how he burst into the dance class in the seaside resort where a group of young girls were sitting on the floor making bracelets, listening to Swift's songs.

On the day of the July killings, she said, Rudakubana searched online for information about a stabbing at a Sydney church earlier in the year.

He then travelled to the dance class venue by taxi armed with a 20-centimetre-long (eight-inch) kitchen knife.

"Within 30 seconds, screams can be heard coming from within, followed by children fleeing from the building," Heer said.

Rudakubana has confessed to killing the three girls who died in the attack -- Bebe King, aged six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and........

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