Bomber used ball bearings for shrapnel
The bomb used in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday attack was a homemade explosive with ball bearings attached and could have caused “significant injury or death”, police said.
Emad al Swealmeen, 32, died when the taxi he was a passenger in exploded outside the Liverpool Women’s Hospital just before 11am on Sunday.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said yesterday: “Although there is much scientific work to do on the device to determine what made it up, we have learned a great deal over the past five days.
“It was made using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it, which would have acted as shrapnel.
“Had it detonated in different circumstances, we believe it would have caused significant injury or death.
"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 that the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.
“We are spending considerable time seeking to understand the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made. This is complicated because purchases have spanned many months and Swealmeen has used many aliases.
“We are confident, however, that in time we will get a full picture of what purchases were made and how, and if anyone else was involved or knew what Swealmeen was up to.”
Taxi driver David Perry escaped from the explosion with injuries.
Mr Jackson said “significant progress” was being
made in the investigation, which includes searches at addresses in Sutcliffe Street and Rutland Avenue in Liverpool.
He confirmed that police have spoken to Swealmeen’s brother saying: “This has given us an insight into his early years and an understanding of Swealmeen’s life and his recent state of mind.
“We are grateful for members of the public who knew him and have contacted us.”
Witnesses described seeing the explosion, which
happened just before 11am.
Security guard Darren Knowles told the Daily Mirror that he had rushed to the aid of Mr Perry after he fled the vehicle and heard him screaming: “Someone has blown me up. I want my wife.”
The asylum seeker, who had converted to Christianity, reportedly arrived in the UK from the Middle East in 2014 and had an application for asylum rejected the following year, but had a fresh
appeal ongoing at the time of his death. Police said that Swealmeen, who said he was from Syria, had been renting the property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, since April and was making “relevant purchases” for his bomb from at least that time.
Earlier this week, Home Secretary Secretary Priti Patel claimed he had been able to exploit Britain’s “dysfunctional” immigration system by staying in the country.