A 53-year-old white British man plowed his minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city’s Premier League championship Monday, police said, as shouts of joy turned into shrieks of terror.
Police said they arrested the man, who was from the area. They did not give any information on casualties. An air ambulance and other emergency vehicles swarmed the scene after reports that multiple pedestrians had been hit.
Harry Rashid, who was at the parade with his wife and two young daughters, said the car began ramming people about 10 feet away from him.
“It was extremely fast,” Rashid said. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
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.
Peter Jones, who had traveled from Isle of Man for the parade, said he heard the car smash into the crowd and then saw at least a half dozen people down in the road.
“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.
Merseyside Police said they were trying to establish what led to the incident and asked people not to speculate or share “distressing content online.”
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, tweeted that he was being updated on the situation and thanked police for their quick response.
The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 26, 2025
I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.
I’m being kept updated on developments and ask that we give the police…
A video on social media appeared to show a gray minivan strike at least one pedestrian and then veer into a larger crowd of people, carving a path through the group and pushing bodies along the street like a plow before coming to a stop.
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 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.
The team issued a short statement saying its thoughts and prayers were with those affected.
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,” Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”
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.”
Eyewitness Natasha Rinaldi told British broadcaster Sky News that “people sounded desperate” and that she saw the car had “run over people,” NBC News reported. (Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.)
“Then people started rushing to go after the driver and they tried to break the car. The police did everything to block and to push people away,” she said. “We could just hear screams and screams. We were very confused.”
“Some of my friends were down there and the car was so near them. It was a horrible scene, nobody was expecting it.”
Police identified the suspect as white, in a possible decision to prevent misinformation from flooding social media.
Last summer, a teen in the nearby town of Southport killed three girls in a stabbing rampage at a dance class and wounded 10 others, including two adults. An incorrect name of the suspect was spread on social media and people said he was an asylum seeker. In fact, he had been born in the U.K. Rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland, targeting Muslims and refugees in hotels of asylum seekers and lasted about a week.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/sVJWxkr
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