Designed for carnage
Liverpool bomber loaded terror device with lethal ball bearings
THE Remembrance Day hospital bomber packed his homemade device with ball bearings to cause carnage.
Police said the casualty list could have been huge if the bomb exploded as he intended.
Failed Iraqi asylum seeker Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, also known as Enzo Almeni, died in the back of a taxi as it arrived at Liverpool Women’s Hospital last Sunday.
The terror device only partially exploded but it destroyed the car and injured driver David Perry, 45.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said it had ball bearings attached to it that could have acted as shrapnel.
He added: “Had the device detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death.
“We are spending considerable time seeking to understand the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made by Al Swealmeen.”
Mr Jackson said: “We still do not know how or why the device exploded when it did, but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional.
“And it is a possibility the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.”
Meanwhile, police have been consulting the bomber’s brother as they try to find a motive for the botched attack.
Ch Con Jackson said: “This has given us an insight into his early years and an understanding of Al Swealmeen’s life and his recent state of mind which is an important line of investigation. “Although there is much work to do on the device to determine what made it up, we have learned a great deal over the past five days.” Forensic teams are still searching two flats used by Al Swealmeen in Liverpool. They believe he had been making purchases for his bomb since April.