'It missed us by inches': Witnesses describe car driving into crowds at Liverpool FC parade

'It missed us by inches': Witnesses describe car driving into crowd at Liverpool FC parade

52 minutes ago Share Save Hafsa Khalil BBC News Share Save

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Witnesses have described the "horrendous" moment a car "rammed" into a crowd of people who were attending Liverpool FC's victory parade following their Premier League win. Merseyside Police said a number of pedestrians were hit by the vehicle in Water Street, Liverpool just after 18:00 BST. Dozens were injured, two of them seriously, with 27 treated in hospital. A 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested, police said, adding that he is believed to have been the driver.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, said the car missed him and his family "by literally inches". "We had just moments before watched fireworks going off, the celebrations of the Liverpool bus passing us on the Strand," he said. He said an ambulance had just made its way through the "dense" crowd he was part of on Water Street, when "there were screams ahead of us and suddenly this dark blue car just came through the crowd". "It just wasn't stopping - I managed to grab my daughter who was with me and jump out of the way. "It missed myself and my family by literally inches." He said the ambulance acted like a "natural barrier... that slowed the car down", but that it had "no intention - it appeared - of stopping". He added that the car looked to be travelling at "more than 20 [mph]", but that he could not be sure it was not 30mph. "As it passed me, it was being chased by a group of men who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it," he explained, adding that the rear windshield had been "completely smashed in". Having moved to safety down a side street, he saw police "running from all over, ambulances, police vans... more and more ambulances, more and more police vans - at one point then an entire squad of armed police cars stopped and people jumped out with rifles and again big medical packs on and began running towards the scene of the incident." He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to "barge through crowds because they didn't want to wait". "But suddenly then, the speed registered and the shouts of the people and the screams of the people registered, and at that point, yeah, adrenaline very much just kicks in".

PA Media Some 47 people were treated for injuries