The driver of a car crashed his vehicle into pedestrians celebrating the city’s championship soccer club on Monday in Liverpool, England, the police said, bringing chaos to what had been a festive parade attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Video from the scene showed a major response by police officers and ambulances along Water Street in the city center.
Merseyside Police said in a statement that they were contacted about 6 p.m. Monday after reports that a car had collided with the crowd. The car was stopped at the scene and a person was detained, police said.
“We can confirm the man arrested is a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area,” the police said in a statement.
“We would ask people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding tonight’s incident on Water Street in Liverpool city centre,” the police added. “Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision. We would ask people not to share distressing content online.”
Video from the scene shared on social media showed a dark-colored van or sport utility vehicle accelerating quickly into the crowd, leaving bodies on the ground in front of the car. The video shows people rushing to the victims and around the vehicle. Later video broadcast on television news showed the car surrounded by dozens of police officers and ambulances after the incident.
Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, said in a statement on social media that he was being briefed on the incident Monday evening.
“The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected,” he wrote. “I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident. I’m being kept updated on developments and ask that we give the police the space they need to investigate.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered along a 10-mile long parade route that wound through the city Monday to celebrate the fact that the Liverpool Football Club had won this year’s Premier League, the top tier of English soccer. Just hours earlier, the police department had urged people to celebrate safely.
“Please keep yourselves and other people safe during today’s #LFC Victory Parade by not climbing buildings, structures, scaffolding or street furniture,” the police said in a statement on X, the social media site. “The parade route covers 10 miles and there are plenty of safe vantage points to see the LFC bus. Hope everyone has a great day!”
That celebratory mood was shattered later in the afternoon amid the reports of the car colliding with some of the people on the street.
In a statement on Monday evening, Liverpool F.C. said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident.”
The club is a global icon, drawing supporters from across the world. The latest championship victory was unexpected, coming in the first season under a new coach, Arne Slot.
Liverpool had been celebrating the title for weeks, having secured it last month with several weeks of the season to go. On Sunday, the team lifted the Premier League trophy to emotional scenes inside its packed stadium. The celebrations were set to peak on Monday, which was a public holiday in Britain, as the victorious team rode through the city on an open topped bus decked with symbols of its winning season.
“We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident,” the team said in its statement, which it also posted to social media.
Around the world, incidents involving vehicles being driven into crowds have become increasingly common.
In February, dozens of people were injured in Munich when a man drove a car into a crowd 10 days before elections in Germany. A month earlier, at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in New Orleans when a man deliberately drove a pickup truck into crowds on Bourbon Street. Scores were killed on Bastille Day in Nice, France, in 2016 when a large truck barreled for more than a mile through a crowd of spectators.
The police in Liverpool have not said anything about a motive for the incident, but are set to hold a news conference at 10.30 p.m. local time.
Under standard protocol for mass casualty incidents in Britain where a suspect’s motivation is unexplained, counterterror police will be involved in the ongoing investigation.
Investigators will be looking at the arrested man’s profile and history, as well as evidence from interviews and examinations of phones and other electronic devices.
The British police only declare incidents terror attacks if they are found to have met the legal definition of terrorism. That means the violence in question must be designed to influence the government, or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and be “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”
Such decisions have become increasingly difficult for the British police in recent years. Several acts of mass violence, such as the stabbing attack in Southport, England, last July in which three young girls were killed have fallen short of the legal threshold because of the lack of a clear ideological motivation.
Tariq Panja contributed reporting from London.
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The Times. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
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