LONDON — A driver slammed a car into a crowd celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League victory, seriously injuring a child and an adult and sending more than two dozen people to hospitals, officials in England said Monday.
The crash created chaos at the end of a festive day in which hundreds of thousands of sports fans had gathered for a parade through Liverpool city center to celebrate their team.
The driver, a 53-year-old British man from the Liverpool area, was arrested at the scene after the vehicle stopped, Merseyside Police said in a statement. Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said at a late-night news conference that investigators were not treating the crash as terrorism and believed it had been an isolated incident.
She also said police were not searching for anyone else involved in the case, but declined to provide any details about what might have prompted the crash. Earlier Monday evening, police said in a statement that extensive inquiries were being made “to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision,” and asked people “not to share distressing content online.”
Nearly 50 people were injured, police said. Four of those were children, the North West Ambulance Service said, including one with serious injuries.
Nick Searle, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said at the news conference Monday night that three adults and one child had been pulled from underneath the vehicle and sent to a hospital.
Overall, a total of 27 people were taken to four hospitals by ambulance, officials said, adding that 20 others were treated at the scene, and more were showing up at local emergency departments with injuries. Officials did not identify any of the victims.
At the late-night news conference, Liam Robinson, a member of the Liverpool City Council, said the episode had “cast a very dark shadow on what’s been a joyous day for the city,” and pledged to provide more information when “it’s appropriate to do so.”
Police and fire officials were already on the parade route when the vehicle plowed through the crowd around 6 p.m. local time.
Video shared on social media shows a dark-color vehicle accelerating quickly into the crowd, with at least one person being thrown into the air and others falling to the ground as the car lurched forward. The video also shows people rushing to the victims and, at one point, surrounding the vehicle.
Police did not disclose how the vehicle had made its way into the middle of the parade route. Sims said road closures and “robust traffic management” had been in effect in the city, but declined to say more.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said on social media: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected. I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident. I’m being kept updated on developments and ask that we give the police the space they need to investigate.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered earlier in the day along a 10-mile parade route that wound through the city to celebrate the fact that Liverpool Football Club had won this year’s Premier League, the top tier of English soccer. The club has drawn supporters from around the world, and the latest championship victory was unexpected, coming in the first season under a new coach, Arne Slot.
Liverpool had been celebrating the title for weeks, having secured it last month. On Sunday, the team lifted the Premier League trophy to emotional scenes in its packed stadium. The celebrations were set to peak Monday, a public holiday in Britain, as the team rode through the city on an open-top bus decked with symbols of its winning season.
Hours earlier, the police department had urged people to celebrate safely.
“Please keep yourselves and other people safe during today’s #LFC Victory Parade by not climbing buildings, structures, scaffolding or street furniture,” police said in a statement on social media. “The parade route covers 10 miles and there are plenty of safe vantage points to see the LFC bus. Hope everyone has a great day!”
That celebratory mood was shattered in the afternoon.
In a statement Monday evening, Liverpool FC said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident. We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”
Global episodes involving vehicles being driven into crowds have become increasingly common.
In February, a man drove a car into a crowd 10 days before elections in Munich, Germany, injuring dozens of people. A month earlier, a man deliberately drove a pickup into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens of others. And a driver barreled a large truck for more than a mile through a crowd of spectators on Bastille Day in Nice, France, in 2016, killing scores.
Under standard protocol for mass casualties in Britain where a suspect’s motivation is unexplained, counterterror police will be involved in the investigation. Officials will be looking at the suspect’s profile and history, as well as evidence from interviews and examinations of phones and other electronic devices.
British police declare events to be terror attacks only if they are found to have met the legal definition of terrorism. That means the violence must be designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and be “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”
Such decisions have become increasingly difficult for British police in recent years. Several acts of mass violence, such as the stabbing attack in Southport, England, last July in which three young girls were killed, have fallen short of the legal threshold because of the lack of a clear ideological motivation.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The crash created chaos at the end of a festive day in which hundreds of thousands of sports fans had gathered for a parade through Liverpool city center to celebrate their team.
The driver, a 53-year-old British man from the Liverpool area, was arrested at the scene after the vehicle stopped, Merseyside Police said in a statement. Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said at a late-night news conference that investigators were not treating the crash as terrorism and believed it had been an isolated incident.
She also said police were not searching for anyone else involved in the case, but declined to provide any details about what might have prompted the crash. Earlier Monday evening, police said in a statement that extensive inquiries were being made “to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision,” and asked people “not to share distressing content online.”
Nearly 50 people were injured, police said. Four of those were children, the North West Ambulance Service said, including one with serious injuries.
Nick Searle, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said at the news conference Monday night that three adults and one child had been pulled from underneath the vehicle and sent to a hospital.
Overall, a total of 27 people were taken to four hospitals by ambulance, officials said, adding that 20 others were treated at the scene, and more were showing up at local emergency departments with injuries. Officials did not identify any of the victims.
At the late-night news conference, Liam Robinson, a member of the Liverpool City Council, said the episode had “cast a very dark shadow on what’s been a joyous day for the city,” and pledged to provide more information when “it’s appropriate to do so.”
Police and fire officials were already on the parade route when the vehicle plowed through the crowd around 6 p.m. local time.
Video shared on social media shows a dark-color vehicle accelerating quickly into the crowd, with at least one person being thrown into the air and others falling to the ground as the car lurched forward. The video also shows people rushing to the victims and, at one point, surrounding the vehicle.
Police did not disclose how the vehicle had made its way into the middle of the parade route. Sims said road closures and “robust traffic management” had been in effect in the city, but declined to say more.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said on social media: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected. I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident. I’m being kept updated on developments and ask that we give the police the space they need to investigate.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered earlier in the day along a 10-mile parade route that wound through the city to celebrate the fact that Liverpool Football Club had won this year’s Premier League, the top tier of English soccer. The club has drawn supporters from around the world, and the latest championship victory was unexpected, coming in the first season under a new coach, Arne Slot.
Liverpool had been celebrating the title for weeks, having secured it last month. On Sunday, the team lifted the Premier League trophy to emotional scenes in its packed stadium. The celebrations were set to peak Monday, a public holiday in Britain, as the team rode through the city on an open-top bus decked with symbols of its winning season.
Hours earlier, the police department had urged people to celebrate safely.
“Please keep yourselves and other people safe during today’s #LFC Victory Parade by not climbing buildings, structures, scaffolding or street furniture,” police said in a statement on social media. “The parade route covers 10 miles and there are plenty of safe vantage points to see the LFC bus. Hope everyone has a great day!”
That celebratory mood was shattered in the afternoon.
In a statement Monday evening, Liverpool FC said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident. We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”
Global episodes involving vehicles being driven into crowds have become increasingly common.
In February, a man drove a car into a crowd 10 days before elections in Munich, Germany, injuring dozens of people. A month earlier, a man deliberately drove a pickup into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens of others. And a driver barreled a large truck for more than a mile through a crowd of spectators on Bastille Day in Nice, France, in 2016, killing scores.
Under standard protocol for mass casualties in Britain where a suspect’s motivation is unexplained, counterterror police will be involved in the investigation. Officials will be looking at the suspect’s profile and history, as well as evidence from interviews and examinations of phones and other electronic devices.
British police declare events to be terror attacks only if they are found to have met the legal definition of terrorism. That means the violence must be designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and be “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”
Such decisions have become increasingly difficult for British police in recent years. Several acts of mass violence, such as the stabbing attack in Southport, England, last July in which three young girls were killed, have fallen short of the legal threshold because of the lack of a clear ideological motivation.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
