Witnesses described the “horrendous” moment when a car “rammed” into a crowd of people who were attending Liverpool FC’s victory parade following their Premier League win.
Merseyside Police said several pedestrians were hit by the vehicle in Water Street, Liverpool just after the parade started in the evening on Monday. Dozens were injured two of them seriously, with 27 treated in hospital.
A 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested, police said, adding that he is believed to have been the driver.
One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, said the car missed him and his family “by inches literraly”. “We had just moments before watched fireworks going off, the celebrations of the Liverpool bus passing us on the Strand,” he said. He said an ambulance had just made its way through the “dense” crowd he was part of on Water Street, when “there were screams ahead of us and suddenly this dark blue car just came through the crowd”.
“It just wasn’t stopping – I managed to grab my daughter who was with me and jump out of the way. “It missed myself and my family by literally inches.” He said the ambulance acted like a “natural barrier that slowed the car down”, but that it had “no intention – it appeared – of stopping”. He added that the car looked to be travelling at “more than 20 mph”, but that he could not be sure it was not 30mph.
“As it passed me, it was being chased by a group of men who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it,” he explained, adding that the rear windshield had been “completely smashed in”.
