LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Four people were “very, very ill in hospital” after sustaining injuries when a car ploughed into a crowd of Liverpool fans during a Premier League title parade, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday, adding he hoped they would “pull through.”
British police believe the incident, in a packed Liverpool city center on Monday, was isolated and not an act of terrorism, but have not said why or how a man was able to drive at crowds celebrating in the streets.
Videos posted online showed a grey people-carrier driving through a crowded street that was closed to cars, sending several flying into the air and dragging at least four under its wheels.
When the vehicle stopped, angry fans converged on it and began smashing the windows as police officers battled to prevent them from reaching the driver.
Police said late on Monday that 20 people were treated at the scene and 27 were taken to hospital, including children.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Scenes of joy turned to utter horror and devastation.”
“My thoughts and the thoughts the whole country are with all of those that are affected,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
Liverpool City Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram told the BBC there were “still four people who are very, very ill in hospital.”
“We are hoping of course that they pull through.”
A MILLION PEOPLE
With most people off work for the Spring Bank Holiday, officials estimated that around 1 million people descended on the 10-mile (16 km) parade route to watch the Liverpool team travel through the city on an open-top bus with the Premier League trophy.
Liverpool last won the league during the COVID pandemic when celebrations were not permitted due to lockdowns.
Police said the car hit the spectators as the event was winding down. In the aftermath, a Reuters photographer saw emergency services carrying victims on stretchers and in their arms to nearby ambulances.
The driver was reported to have followed an ambulance into a street that had been closed to traffic.
One source told MailOnline that it looked like he panicked when he realized he was in the crowd and people started banging on his car.
The driver, who was sounding his horn, reversed and then accelerated forwards, according to reports from other witnesses.
Police were unusually quick to provide a description of the man they arrested, saying around two hours after the incident that they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area.”
Former police officers and local politicians said that statement was needed to cool social media speculation that the episode was an Islamist attack.
“That was one of my first concerns, that we needed to get the story out quickly,” mayor Rotheram told the BBC.
“If there’s a vacuum, we know there are some elements that will try to inflame the situation and to create that speculation and to put misinformation out there.”
The same police force oversaw the response to the murder of three young girls in the nearby town of Southport last year, an incident which sparked days of rioting, fueled initially by speculation online over the identity of the attacker.
(Writing by Kate Holton and Paul Sandle: additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in LONDON; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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