Two people are seriously injured, including a child, with four people “very ill in hospital” after a car was driven into crowds at a Liverpool football victory parade, the city mayor says.
Police revealed the ethnicity of the suspect in a car-ramming of a crowd with “unprecedented” speed in a move that has been perceived as a correction after sitting on that information was blamed for feeding widespread unrest leading to riots after a mass-stabbing of children last summer. As it is, Monday’s incident is not being treated as terrorism, police are stated to believe, and the driver who propelled his automobile into crowds is reported to have “panicked and put his foot down”, it is reported.
Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram gave an update on the injured — fortunately there have been no fatalities reported yet — after the car was driven to plough through a football victory parade on Monday evening. Rotheram said four people are “very ill in hospital”.
It had earlier been said that two people, including a child, were in very “serious condition”. They were of 47 injured in total, including 20 treated for minor injuries at the scene and 27 taken by ambulance to hospital, including four children.
On Monday, police said they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area” in connection with the incident. The Daily Mail cites a police source who told the newspaper that the driver “tailgated” an ambulance into the parade area — which should have been closed to motor traffic” and then “panicked”. He said: “It looks as if he has panicked when he realised he was in the crowd and people began banging on his car… Instead of going back the way he came he’s got angry and put his foot down, it’s absolutely devastating.”
The Times reports police are not treating the incident as terrorism, say they believe it was an isolated incident, and have asked the public “not to speculate on the circumstances”. The investigation continues.
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