BY C STONE | STONE NEWS NETWORK |||| LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND
A crowd in Liverpool celebrating a soccer match was hit by a 53-year old British man with his vehicle. The crowd was there to celebrate the Premier League Championship, which injured at least 53 people.
The driver was immediately arrested. 27 people were immediately taken to hospital, and 2 had serious injuries.
Four people were trapped under the vehicle, including 1 child. The firefighters who responded had to lift the vehicle off the poor child.
Per AP:
As the parade was wrapping up, a gray minivan turned onto the parade route and plowed into the sea of fans wrapped in their red Liverpool scarves, jerseys and other memorabilia. A video on social media showed the van strike a man, tossing him in the air, before veering into a larger crowd, where it plowed a path through the group and pushed bodies along the street before coming to a stop.
“It was extremely fast,” said Harry Rashid, who was with his wife and two young daughters as the minivan passed by them. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
Rashid said the crowd charged the halted 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,” Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”
Rashid said it looked deliberate.
“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.”
Liverpool fans had come out in the hundreds of thousands to celebrate the team winning the Premier League this season for a record-tying 20th top-flight title.
Peter Jones, who had traveled from Isle of Man, said he heard the car smash into the crowd and saw at least a half-dozen people down.
“We heard a frantic beeping ahead, a car flew past me and my mate, people were chasing it and trying to stop him, windows smashed at the back,” Jones said. “He then drove into people, police and medics ran past us, and people were being treated on the side of the road.”
The Prime Minister of Britain praised the responders, saying:
“Everyone, especially children, should be able to celebrate their heroes without this horror,” Starmer said. “The city has a long and proud history of coming together through difficult times. Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool.”
It is not known what caused this man to drive his vehicle into the crowd, nor do we know his intentions.
AP's story.
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