The Strand had been a scene of sheer euphoria 25 minutes earlier.
At 5.41pm the open-top bus parading the Liverpool team had passed by the Royal Liver Building and a huge crowd broke into a powerful rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone to celebrate the new Premier League champions.
Fireworks and ticker-tape exploded overhead. From an apartment on Mann Island, former Liverpool managers Jürgen Klopp and Sir Kenny Dalglish waved to jubilant supporters below.
Just after 6pm, on nearby Water Street, the scene was one of devastation. A car, driven by a 53-year-old white British male from the Liverpool area, collided with a number of pedestrians including four children.
Twenty-seven people were taken to hospital, with two sustaining serious injuries, including one of the children.
Another 20 were treated for minor injuries at the scene and others self-presented at hospitals on Merseyside later in the day.
Ambulances were parked outside Liverpool town hall over three hours later.
Approximately 20 to 30 casualties were being treated in the Riva Blu Italian restaurant across the road.
One man from Birmingham, who asked not to be named, had been treated for back and leg injuries having been knocked over in the incident.
He had spent the day celebrating on the Strand but, unable to get a signal to send photographs to the family WhatsApp group, decided to head up Water Street in search of better coverage. “I won’t be sending any now,” he said. “I’d had the most wonderful day but now I don’t even want to think about what I just saw.”
His incomprehension was understandable. It had been a magnificent day, a celebration 35 years in the waiting that had attracted Liverpool supporters from as far as New Zealand, Australia and Thailand.
Michael Holdener, 28, had cycled with a group of friends for 20 days from Unteriberg in Switzerland, via France, Germany and the Netherlands, to see his beloved team parade a record-equalling 20th league title. Liverpool fans, and Klopp, had been denied the opportunity when Liverpool won their 19th league championship in 2020, ending the club’s 30-year wait for that particular honour, due to the Covid pandemic.
And now this.
Arne Slot, the Liverpool head coach who had delivered the trophy in his first season in charge, had earlier described the day as the best of his short but successful Anfield career. Slot, a title winner at his previous club Feyenoord, had said on the team bus: “This is by far the number one day, this is beyond what you can expect, what you can dream of maybe. This is unbelievable. I won a few things before and they were beautiful but this you cannot compare with anything. Young, old, every age is here. You look the fans in the eyes and you see it all. You can hardly imagine that there are still more citizens of Liverpool still to come. All through the route there are so many people. This is beyond my dreams.”
And now this.
Liverpool city council estimated that half a million people had lined the 10-mile route around the city to witness the trophy parade. Ignoring the miserable weather, they had started taking their places from 8am to get the best views of Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and a tearful Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is leaving his boyhood club for Real Madrid this summer.
Birmingham New Street train station was full of Liverpool fans attempting to reach the city by mid-morning.
The Strand, the road that runs along the front of the city centre past the Three Graces, was a spectacular sight as the Liverpool bus slowly made its way through, the air filled with red smoke.
But 25 minutes later four people were trapped under a car on Water Street and dozens lay injured.
A day of jubilation had turned into one of horror. Projections celebrating Liverpool’s title triumph on the Royal Albert Dock were switched off. Liverpool FC curtailed all social media activity as soon as they became aware of the seriousness of the incident and a staff party, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, was cancelled.
Slot and his players were updated on developments as soon as they stepped off the coach. A horrendous end to what should have been, and what had been, a joyous day.