A 53-year-old British man plowed his minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who had been celebrating the town staff’s Premier League championship on Monday (May 26, 2025) and was arrested, police mentioned.
An air ambulance and different emergency automobiles swarmed the scene to answer experiences that a number of pedestrians had been hit.
“It was extremely fast,” mentioned Harry Rashid, who was on the parade together with his spouse and two younger daughters and solely a number of ft away. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer mentioned he was being up to date on the state of affairs and thanked police for his or her fast response.
“The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my ideas are with all these injured or affected,” Mr. Starmer said.
Liverpool fans had come out in their tens of thousands to celebrate the team winning the Premier League this season for a record-tying 20th top-flight title.
Liverpool’s last league title came in 2020 but supporters were denied the chance to publicly celebrate that trophy due to restrictions in place at the time during the pandemic.
Dancing, scarf-and-flag-waving fans braved wet weather to line the streets and climb up traffic lights to get a view of Liverpool’s players who were atop two buses bearing the words “Ours Again.”
The hours-long procession — surrounded by a thick layer of police and security — crawled along a 10-mile (16-kilometer) route and through a sea of red smoke and rain. Fireworks exploded from the Royal Liver Building in the heart of the city to seemingly signal the end of the parade.
Mr. Rashid said after the car rammed its initial victims, it came to a halt and the crowd charged the vehicle and began smashing windows.
“But then he put his foot down again and just plowed through the rest of them, he just kept going,” Mr. Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”
Mr. Rashid said it looked deliberate and he was in shock and disbelief.
“My daughter started screaming and there were people on the ground,” he said. “They were just innocent people, just fans going to enjoy the parade.”
Published – May 27, 2025 01:16 am IST
