A 53-year-old man has been arrested
TW: Distressing content
Eyewitnesses have described the moment when a car collided with pedestrians during Liverpool Football Club’s title parade.
Hundreds of fans were out celebrating on Water Street when the incident occurred shortly after 6pm today.
Speaking to the BBC, one eyewitness described how they just heard “screams and screams” as an unnamed man drove into the crowds in a black people-carrier this evening.
A 53-year-old male was detained and arrested at the scene of the incident.
liverpool incident
via TikTok
One eyewitness, Natasha Rinaldi, said she was watching the parade from her friend’s living room window when “we heard some screams”.
“It was so loud. People sounded desperate. And then we looked at the window and we saw the car [had] run over people,” she told Sky News.
She added: “Then people started rushing to go after the driver and they tried to break the car. The police did everything to block and to push people away.
“We could just hear screams and screams. We were very confused. Some of my friends were down there and the car was so near them. It was a horrible scene, nobody was expecting it.”
Liverpool Football Club’s victory parade commenced at 2:30pm today, with fans following the open-top bus from Allerton Road towards the Royal Albert Dock.
Merseyside Police were in attendance just after 6pm following reports of a road traffic collision involving fans lining the streets to celebrate the club’s title win.
Another eyewitness at the scene, Harry Rashid, 48, from Solihull, attended the parade with his wife and two young daughters.
He said the car collision “happened about 10 feet away from us”.
Mr Rashid said: “This grey people carrier just pulled up from the right and just rammed into all the people at the side of us. It was travelling south, down Water Street […]. It was extremely fast.”
He added that his family heard people being knocked off the bonnet of a car. He said the driver stalled for 10 seconds before “he put his foot down again and just ploughed through the rest of them”.
“Then my daughter started screaming and there were people on the ground. It looked clearly deliberate,” he told Sky News.
In footage widely circulating online, spectators can be seen scattering as a car drives directly into pedestrians. A number of pedestrians are pushed onto the bonnet of the car as it continues to drive forward.
Filming above from a nearby building, those behind the camera can be heard saying “Oh my god, what the f*ck” as a number of pedestrians can be seen swarming the car.
A police cordon still remains in place in the area and it is still not yet known if anyone has been injured. A full police response was at the scene of the Liverpool incident, including fire engines and air ambulance.
Have you been affected by the incident in Liverpool city centre or did you see anything? If so, we want to hear from you. Get in touch via @thetabliverpool
This story will be updated as more news comes in.
Featured image via Google Maps and TikTok