This is the horrifying moment a car veers into Liverpool fans celebrating the club’s Premier League title – turning a day of joy into what one witness called “hell on earth”.
Footage of the incident appears to show the car speed up as it veers into pedestrians on both sides of Water Street, with people knocked to the floor off the windshield, falling to the ground and darting out of the way to avoid harm.
One onlooker, Matthew O'Carroll, 28, from Runcorn, saw the car approaching the top of Water Street towards the end of Monday’s open-top bus carnival, which saw as many as one million Liverpool fans throng the 10-mile route as their heroes paraded the league trophy.
He said the vehicle went past a parked police van at a “decent” speed and that the driver was beeping as he went through the crowd.
Meanwhile, witness Mike Maddra told the PA news agency the “car turned left, mounted pavement, come towards us and runs towards the buildings”.
He said: “we got out the way and it was speeding up”.
Mr Maddra said he thought he saw two people being hit and added, "it looked deliberate".
Social media video also showed angry fans converging on the vehicle as it came to a stop, smashing windows before police intervened.
Harry Rashid, 48, from Solihul, said you could "hear the bumps" as the driver rammed spectators.
He described how crowds began trying to smash the car windows, causing the driver to stall for about 10 seconds, before putting his foot down again and hitting more people.
Witnesses told The Guardian the whole ordeal lasted 20-30 seconds, and the first victim was thrown "about 20 feet" in the air.
Dan Ogunshakin, an off-duty BBC reporter attending the parade, told the public broadcaster he saw people hitting the car before it reversed and then "it suddenly accelerated forwards", straight towards the surrounding crowd.
"What had once been an atmosphere of celebration and joy and happiness suddenly turned into fear and terror and disbelief," he said, adding it became “hell on earth”.
Police said the car eventually stopped at the scene and the man was detained.
BBC reporter Matt Cole said the car missed him and his family “by literally inches”.
“We had just moments before watched fireworks going off, the celebrations of the Liverpool bus passing us on the Strand,” he said.
He said an ambulance had made its way through the “dense” on Water Street, when “there were screams ahead of us and suddenly this dark blue car just came through the crowd”.
“It just wasn't stopping - I managed to grab my daughter who was with me and jump out of the way.
“It missed myself and my family by literally inches.”
He described how police officers exited a "squad" of armed police vehicles with rifles and medical packs and began running to the scene.
Daniel Jones, 28, told The Sun newspaper that police restrained people who were "smashing" the car.
"They were ripping the register plate off," he said. "The back window was broken when the (driver) was still in it."
Twenty-seven people were taken to hospital, and a further 20 were treated at the scene.
Nick Searle, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service chief fire officer, said four people who were trapped under the car, including a child, were rescued by firefighters.
At a press conference, Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said the "horrific incident" was not being treated as terrorism.
