Four people are still “very, very ill in hospital” after a car ploughed into fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League victory, the city’s metro mayor has said.
A 53-year-old British man from the Liverpool area, believed to be the driver of the vehicle, was arrested after the “horrific” incident in Water Street in the heart of the city on Monday. Four children were among about 50 people who were injured when the vehicle careered into the packed crowd shortly after 6pm.
Merseyside police are investigating the incident, which isnot being treated as terrorism.
Liverpool’s metro mayor, Steve Rotheram, said the mood in the city had moved from shock to reflection and relief that no one had been killed. “There are still four people who are very, very ill in hospital and we are hoping of course that they pull through very, very quickly,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
The prime minister said the nation’s thoughts were with the victims and the wider community. “Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool,” Keir Starmer said.
“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.”
The former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who attended the parade on Monday, said he was “shocked and devastated”. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are injured and affected. You’ll never walk alone,” he said in a post on Instagram.
On Tuesday morning, a large section of Water Street was cordoned off with police vans and officers stationed along its length, and forensic investigators in white suits gathering evidence.
Red flare and firework casings, bottles and cans lay discarded in the gutters, with red bunting and a Liverpool FC flag still tied to railings inside the cordon.
Businesses on the street remained shuttered, with a mobile police station and a forensic investigation unit parked inside the cordon. Traffic was diverted along nearby roads, with the scene of the incident right in the heart of the city centre, close to Liverpool’s famous waterfront.
Rotheram said the “big question” in the forefront of everybody’s minds was how the car ended up in Water Street.
“The question, let’s be honest, that everybody’s sort of, it’s in the forefront of their minds is why did a car end up in Water Street and that’s for the police now to conclude their investigations, we’ll find out the reason why it was there,” he said.
“Water Street was not a route where vehicles were supposed to be using it. It was blocked off. At this end of it, which is the direction that it was coming in, towards the Strand, there were literally hundreds of thousands of people here, so no vehicle would have got through anyway. And the questions, I suppose, are legitimate, but we have to give the police the time to conclude their investigations, which is what they’re doing.”
Liverpool city council confirmed that hostile vehicle mitigation measures had been in place on Water Street as part of a rolling road closure to support the traffic management plan for the parade.
At a late-night press conference on Monday, North West ambulance service confirmed 27 people had been taken to hospital, with two of the injured, including one child, sustaining serious injuries.
Nick Searle, Merseyside fire and rescue service chief fire officer, said four people who were trapped under the car, including a child, were rescued by firefighters.