Probe into UK ‘terror attack’
LONDON: Fears that extremist terrorists were plotting a Remembrance Sunday atrocity in Britain are being investigated after a man died in a car explosion in Liverpool.
A taxi passenger was killed in the blast, which occurred outside the city’s Women’s Hospital on Sunday just moments before the start of the two-minute silence at 11am (local time) at the nearby Liverpool Cathedral.
Police said a man who was a passenger in the car was declared dead at the scene, while another man who was driving the taxi was injured and was in hospital in a stable condition.
Three men were later arrested under the Terrorism Act in the Kensington area of the city while armed police sealed off a street a mile away, in Sefton Park, and sent in specialist negotiators.
The blast occurred close to the cathedral, which was hosting one of the country’s largest Remembrance Sunday services with more than 2000 people in attendance.
Big screens were set up in the grounds so that the service could be broadcast to those who could not get into the cathedral, and local roads were closed because of a parade linked to the event.
Security sources confirmed that detectives were examining whether there was any significance to the timing of the incident and its closeness to the cathedral, and said the possibility of an Islamist terror attack was among the various scenarios being investigated.
Counter-terrorism police said three men – aged 29, 26, and 21 – had been arrested in the Kensington area of the city and were being held under the Terrorism Act.
Police negotiators were said to have been dispatched to a “siege situation” at a property in the Sefton Park area.
A friend of the taxi driver identified him as David Perry from Kirkdale.
He said Mr Perry had picked up the passenger in Sefton Park and that the man did not say anything until they got to the hospital. The driver noticed the passenger fiddling with something in the back seat before he was knocked unconscious by the blast.
The friend said Mr Perry got out of the car just before the vehicle burst into flames. The driver’s ear was partially severed, he suffered shrapnel wounds in his back and possible spinal fracture, he added.
Jenny Phillips, a fellow taxi driver, claimed Mr Perry had saved lives by locking a man with a bomb in his car before he escaped. Ms Phillips, who has set up a campaign to raise £10,000 (about $18,000) for Mr Perry, said: “David saved so many lives at the risk of his own life. David saved his city.”
Merseyside chief constable Serena Kennedy said: “It has not been declared a terrorist incident at this stage, although out of caution (counter-terrorism) detectives are leading (the investigation) as we try to understand the circumstances behind the explosion.”
Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was being kept regularly updated.