The explosion of a taxi on Sunday outside a women’s hospital in Liverpool was called a “terrorist incident” on Monday by counterterrorism police who arrested four suspects.
According to the police, the device having exploded in the transport vehicle, was brought on board by the passenger killed by the explosion. The driver, injured by the attack, was described as a “hero” after having prevented the terrorist from getting out of his taxi.
The explosion of a taxi near a hospital in Liverpool in the north of England on Sunday was called a “terrorist act” by police, authorities said on Monday (November 15th).
The attack, which left one dead – the perpetrator – and one injured, took place on Sunday morning, just as the UK was commemorating the victims of wars, on “Remembrance Sunday”. It occurred just before 11:00 a.m. (local and GMT) on Sunday, as the nation silently prayed a few hundred yards from Liverpool Cathedral, where hundreds of soldiers, veterans and members of the public gathered to a tribute.
“We cannot establish a link at this stage but it is an avenue of inquiry that we are exploring,” Russ Jackson, in charge of the region’s counterterrorism police, told a press conference on Monday of these commemorations. Injured in the explosion, the taxi driver has been called a “hero” by politicians and tabloids who said he had saved the lives of people. According to The Daily Mail, the driver noticed that his passenger looked “suspicious” and locked him in the taxi, before escaping.
The perpetrator had taken this taxi from Rutland Avenue in Liverpool, asking the driver to take him to the women’s hospital, a 10-minute drive away. It was in front of this hospital that the explosion occurred.
“The taxi driver, in his heroic efforts, managed to avoid what could have been an absolutely horrific disaster at the hospital,” Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson told the BBC on Monday, confirming he had “locked the doors” of the vehicle.
