Four people are “very, very ill in hospital” after sustaining injuries when a car in Liverpool, England rammed into a crowd of soccer fans on Monday evening, Mayor Steve Rotheram said.
The collision, which took place in a packed city center as fans were celebrating Liverpool F.C. winning the English Premier League, injured nearly 50 people, including four children.
“Scenes of joy turned to utter horror and devastation, and my thoughts and the thoughts of the whole country are with all of those that are affected, those injured, which of course includes children, their families, their friends, the whole community, Liverpool fans everywhere,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said following the incident.
Police in Merseyside, the county where Liverpool is located, said a 53-year-old British man was arrested but the incident is not being treated as an act of terrorism.
This is the latest major car-ramming incident in a worrying trend across the globe. In April, 11 people were killed and dozens injured in Vancouver, Canada during a Filipino heritage festival in the city. Two people were killed alongside 37 injured in Munich, Germany in February.
Here’s what we know so far about the car-ramming in Liverpool.
How did the car-ramming in Liverpool happen?
An estimated 1 million people were in downtown Liverpool on Monday attending an open-bus trophy parade celebrating their team’s Premier League Championship. At around 6 p.m. local time, a car drove into the crowd on Water Street, hitting dozens of people.
Although the car stopped and slowed down on various occasions, as seen in video taken by witnesses, the vehicle continued west on Water Street as people tried to avoid it.
One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, said the car was being chased by men “who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it,” the broadcaster reported.
Another eyewitness, Peter Jones, told Sky News: “We heard a frantic beeping ahead, a car flew past me and my mate, people were chasing it and trying to stop him, windows smashed at the back.”
The car was eventually stopped at the scene, with people and nearby police officers swarming toward the vehicle.
Who has been injured?
At a press conference on Monday night, Merseyside Police said 47 people were injured.
“We can confirm that our teams treated 20 patients at the scene for minor injuries—these did not need hospital treatment. Twenty-seven patients in total were taken to hospital by ambulance,” said Dave Kitchin of North West Ambulance Service.
Kitchin added that one paramedic was struck by the vehicle but did not sustain injuries.
At the press conference, Chief Fire Officer Nick Searle from Mersey Fire and Rescue Service said that three fire engines were on the scene within four minutes of the collision and arrived to four people stuck under a vehicle.
“Our crews rapidly lifted the vehicle, removed people from beneath and passed them to our Ambulance colleagues. We then worked with emergency service partners to ensure casualties received medical treatment and transport to hospital as quickly as possible,” Searle added.
Who is the suspected attacker?
Merseyside Police said the 53-year-old suspect is a white British man who they believe to be the driver of the vehicle.
“We believe this to be an isolated incident, and we are not currently looking for anyone else in relation to it. The incident is not currently being treated as terrorism,” said Deputy Chief Constable Jenny Sims.
In the hours following the car ramming, numerous accounts on social media had spread false information regarding the attack, including the suspect’s age and ethnicity. But authorities were praised for their quick response to the incident and swift updates.
“The police acted very, very quickly, really swiftly, to put paid to speculation. I don’t think it’s worth us speculating on what might have happened with the driver,” Liverpool Mayor Rotheram told the BBC on Tuesday morning.
Merseyside Police had in July 2024 come under criticism following its response to a deadly stabbing attack in the town of Southport, north of Liverpool. Three girls were killed as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, a British-born evangelical Christian whose parents moved to the U.K. from Rwanda in 2002, attacked children and teachers at a dance class.
Within hours of the attack, false reports spread on social media that the attacker was an undocumented Muslim asylum-seeker. Violent riots erupted across the U.K. after the attack, in which mosques and migrant accommodation were largely targeted.
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