Celebrations of Liverpool FC's Premier League victory turned to horror as a car ploughed into crowds of people during the team's victory parade on Monday.
An estimated one million fans lined the streets of Liverpool for the open-top bus parade, a 10-mile, three-and-a-half-hour journey that began at Allerton Maze and culminated on the Strand in the city centre.
Witnesses described scenes of panic and chaos as the vehicle careered into the crowd, marring what should have been a day of pure celebration. Details of the incident, including the number of casualties and the circumstances leading up to the crash, are still emerging.
The incident unfolded in Water Street, which connects onto the Strand, about a mile before the parade’s finishing point.
The Liverpool bus had recently passed the crowds gathered there when a car began ploughing through people, according to BBC reporter Matt Cole who attended the parade with his family.
Police said reports started coming in just after 6pm.
Another witness, Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn, saw the car approaching the top of Water Street.
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.
Harry Rashid, 48, from Solihull, described the car as a grey, people carrier travelling south down the street towards the Strand.
Footage of the incident, which was circulating online on Monday, appeared to show the car speed up as it veered into pedestrians on both sides of the street, passing a Hooters restaurant at one point, with people knocked to the floor off the windshield, falling to the ground and darting out of the way to avoid harm.
“It was extremely fast,” Mr Rashid said. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
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.
Another witness, Mike Maddra, said he saw the car mount the pavement.
Mr Cole described the vehicle being chased by a group of men, telling BBC News how they tried to bang its side and launch objects at it.
“The back of the rear windshield had been completely smashed in, but it just had no intention of stopping,” he said.
The reporter 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.”
Merseyside Police said the car eventually stopped at the scene and the man was detained.
Afterwards, there was a heavy emergency services presence afterwards in the littered street, with police cars, ambulances and fire engines all at the scene.
Several casualties were seen being taken away by crews, including a conscious man on a stretcher being put into an ambulance.
