The alleged driver of the car that hit fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title has been arrested on suspicion of drug driving and attempted murder after he “followed” an ambulance past a roadblock, police have said.
The 53-year-old British man, from the West Derby area of Liverpool, was also arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving. He is being interviewed in custody.
Detectives have been given additional time to question the man until around lunchtime on Wednesday.
“It is believed the driver of the Ford Galaxy car involved in this incident was able to follow an ambulance on to Water Street after the roadblock was temporarily lifted so that the ambulance crew could attend to a member of the public who was having a suspected heart attack,” Merseyside’s assistant chief constable Jenny Sims told a press conference.
“There was no intelligence to suggest an incident of this nature would take place,” she added, reiterating that it was not being treated as terrorism.
Fifty people were treated in hospital, Sims said. Eleven were still in hospital for treatment on Tuesday afternoon. She said all were in a stable condition and “appear to be recovering well”.
There were no “major traumas” or life-threatening injuries among the victims, medical staff at Royal Liverpool university hospital said. Marc Lucky, the divisional medical director for surgery at Aintree university hospital, said: “We were very, very fortunate yesterday, I must say.”
Jay Rathore, a consultant, added: “Most of the injuries were limb injuries. No life-threatening, we were able to manage them.”
DCS Karen Jaundrill said police had confirmed 65 casualties. “Further work is ongoing to identify other people affected, and we will continue to support these individuals in the days and weeks to come,” she said.
Liverpool’s metro mayor, Steve Rotheram, said the mood in the city had moved from shock to reflection and relief that no one had been killed. He said he hoped that the injured “pull through very, very quickly”, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “The actual incident in Water Street will live with those people for all the wrong reasons, and that’s where we have to really focus our minds.”
He was joined on a visit to the police cordon on Tuesday evening by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper.
The prime minister said the nation’s thoughts were with the victims and the wider community. “Liverpool stands together and the whole country stands with Liverpool,” Keir Starmer said. “Scenes of joy turned to utter horror and devastation, and my thoughts and the thoughts of the whole country are with all of those that are affected, those injured, which of course includes children, their families, their friends, the whole community, Liverpool fans everywhere.”
The former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who attended Monday’s parade, said he was “shocked and devastated”. He wrote on Instagram: “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are injured and affected. You’ll never walk alone.”
On Tuesday, a large section of Water Street remained cordoned off, with police vans and officers stationed along its length and forensic investigators in white suits gathering evidence.
Red flare and firework casings, bottles and cans lay discarded in the gutters, with red bunting and a Liverpool FC flag still tied to railings inside the cordon.
Businesses on the street were shuttered, with a mobile police station and a forensic investigation unit parked inside the cordon. Traffic was diverted along nearby roads, with the scene of the incident in the heart of the city centre, close to Liverpool’s waterfront.
Rotheram told reporters the car should not have been on Water Street and the “big question” was how the incident happened.
“The question … is why did a car end up in Water Street, and that’s for the police now to conclude their investigations – we’ll find out the reason why it was there,” he said.
“Water Street was not a route vehicles were supposed to be using. It was blocked off. At this end of it, which is the direction that it was coming in, towards the Strand, there were literally hundreds of thousands of people here, so no vehicle would have got through anyway. And the questions, I suppose, are legitimate, but we have to give the police the time to conclude their investigations, which is what they’re doing.”
Mohamad Abbar, 31, the owner of a mobile phone shop on Dale Street, a few roads down from the scene, said he was surprised to see so many cars moving among the crowds of pedestrians and felt it was dangerous. “Too many cars were here,” he said. “Too many cars everywhere.”
Liverpool city council confirmed that hostile vehicle mitigation measures had been in place on Water Street as part of a rolling road closure to support the traffic management plan for the parade.
Sims defended the policing operation during the parade, saying the force planned for “all contingencies” - including road closures and an armed police presence.
Nick Searle, Merseyside fire and rescue service’s chief fire officer, said four people who were trapped under the car, including a child, were rescued by firefighters.
