There were no official celebrations when Liverpool last won the Premier League. It was 2020 and the country was in the middle of a Covid lockdown. This time the streets were packed with up to a million fans eager to witness the club’s first victory parade in 35 years as it looped round the city on bank holiday Monday.
Triumphant Liverpool players began the slow open-top bus journey at about 2.30pm on Queens Drive, south-east of the city centre. It was due to finish at about 7.30pm at Blundell Street near Royal Albert Dock. But the celebrations were brutally curtailed. This time not by a global pandemic but a lone driver in a people carrier.
At about 5.40pm the bus passed Water Street as it made its way along the Strand – the main road along the Mersey waterfront. Minutes later hundred of fans were filmed walking east along Water Street amid red flares after cheering the bus pass.
Further up the road, where Water Street runs into Dale Street, tempers were rising. A grey Ford Galaxy had been allowed into an area closed to vehicles because of the parade. Police later said it entered by tailgating an ambulance attending an emergency into the pedestrian area.
“What are you’s doing?” one man is heard shouting at the middle-aged driver, a video showed.
Many others outside a William Hill bookmakers were angered by the car’s presence on a street thronged with hundreds of fans. The car lurched forward while sounding its horn. The car was heading west towards the Strand as most in the crowd were walking the other way.
A video filmed from the opposite side of the street showed a man pounding on the Ford’s rear window. He was knocked back as the car reversed sharply.
Back on the other side of the street another video showed a man opening the driver’s door. At this point the car sped forward with the door open. Some fans ran after the car as the door was slammed shut. One man kicked the car, another threw a fold-up chair onto the vehicle’s roof.
The car sped towards Liverpool town hall with its horn blaring as people packed in the street ran out of his way. Seconds later the car was then filmed outside 8 Water Street. By this stage it was surrounded by fans, many clad in red Liverpool colours.
Some pounded on the roof, bonnet and windscreen of the car. A handful of police officers in high vis jackets could also be seen near the car with an ambulance just behind.
For the next 10 seconds a scene of terrifying carnage unfolded.
The car initially reversed and appeared to knock over people behind. It bolted forward at an alarming speed. A man wearing a red Liverpool top and rucksack was knocked onto the bonnet with such force that he spun round as he hit the windscreen before tumbling to the street.
The car then veered towards the side of the road where hundreds of people were tightly packed on the edge of the road. Several people were caught under the wheels others violently knocked to either side of the vehicle. A video filmed from above showed people knocked several metres in front of the vehicle by the speed of the impact.
As the crowd dispersed in terror the car veered back into the middle of the street and was quickly set upon by many in the crowd. Some police officers were seen trying to hold back those attacking the car. Within seconds, a ring of police officers surrounded the vehicle. Its rear window had been smashed in.
After the driver was taken away, paramedics attended those injured. Some were taken to hospital on stretchers, others on wheel chairs, while some managed to take themselves to A&E.
Within an hour, at 6.54pm, Merseyside police announced that officers had detained a man at the scene.
Speculation about the motives of the incident quickly spread online. Some accused Merseyside police of withholding information about the ethnicity of the driver. There were similar accusations last year following the Southport stabbing attack amid false reports that the attacker was an asylum seeker. The force was criticised for being too slow to release information that could have calmed the riots that followed.
In apost on Xat 7.54pm, the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, said: “The public deserve to know the full facts as quickly as possible.”
At 8.17pm Merseyside police announced that 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area had been arrested over the collision. It urged the public not to speculate on the circumstances.