Dozens of people were left injured while four children were killed during a Liverpool FC parade after the driver of a a car plowed through a crowd of watchers.
The incident caused chaos at the end of the festivities where hundreds of thousands of sports fans gathered to watch a parade go through the Liverpool city center. Officials identified the driver of the vehicle as a 53-year-old British man who lived in the Liverpool area.
Liverpool Parade Car Crash Injures Nearly 50 People
Police quickly arrested the suspect at the scene where the car had stopped. Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said that investigators are not treating the car crash as terrorism as they believe it is an isolated incident.
Sims added that police officers were not looking for any other individual who could be involved in the case. The assistant chief constable declined to provide the public with additional details regarding what could have caused the driver to crash into the crowd, according to the New York Times.
In a statement on Monday evening, police said that they were making extensive inquiries to establish the circumstances that led up to the crash. They are also asking people to not share any distressing content on social media platforms.
Read more: Grieving Family Files Lawsuit Following Cybertruck Crash in Piedmont That Killed 3 Teenagers
The crash injured almost 50 people, four of whom were children, and left one of them with serious injuries. Chief fire officer for the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Nick Searle, added that three adults and one child were removed from underneath the vehicle and quickly transported to the hospital to be treated.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the scenes at the site were "appalling," as footage showed police cordoning the area around the heavily littered road. A different video showed one individual being carried on a stretcher and another man walking with his arm wrapped around a police officer, The Guardian reported.
Investigating the Tragic Incident
One witness, 55-year-old Les Winsper, said when people were banging on the car's windows, they smashed one. This caused the driver to put his foot down and accelerate, hitting several other people.
Starmer said that he is also monitoring developments regarding the incident as he expressed thanks to police and emergency services for their quick and ongoing response to help the people who were hurt.
One ambulance service said that one of their cyclist paramedics was also struck by the vehicle. Fortunately, they did not sustain any injuries. They added that some people also self-presented themselves at local hospitals, as per NPR.
