LONDON (AP) — 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, 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.
A video on social media appeared to show a gray minivan strike at least one pedestrian and then veer into a larger crowd, carving a path through the group and pushing bodies along the street before coming to a stop.
“It was extremely fast,” said Harry Rashid, who was with his wife and two young daughters as the car passed by them. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
Rashid said the crowd charged the halted 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.
“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.”
Liverpool fans had come out in the 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, said he heard the car smash into the crowd and saw at least a half-dozen people down.
“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.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes appalling and said he was being updated on the situation.
Liverpool’s last league title came in 2020 but supporters were denied the chance to publicly celebrate due to restrictions in place during the COVID pandemic.
This time, scarf-and-flag-waving fans braved wet weather to line the streets and climb up traffic lights for a view of Liverpool’s players, who were atop two buses bearing the words “Ours Again.”
The hours-long procession — surrounded by a heavy police presence — crawled along a 10-mile (16-kilometer) route and through a sea of red smoke and rain. Fireworks exploded from the Royal Liver Building in the heart of the city.
The team in a short statement said its thoughts and prayers were with those affected. The Premier League issued a similar statement expressing shock at the “appalling events in Liverpool.”
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.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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