Eyewitness describes harrowing scenes as car hits Liverpool FC parade crowd

ITV News

26-05-2025

An eyewitness who saw a car plough into fans as they celebrated the Liverpool Premier League victory parade has described the harrowing moment a mother clutching an injured baby came to him for help.
A number of people have been injured after the car struck fans during the open top bus parade through the city - with a white British man detained.
Aerial footage showed a number of ambulances and paramedics on the scene on Water Street, Liverpool, after emergency services were called shortly after 6pm.
The car was stopped and a 53-year-old man from the Liverpool area has been detained.
Darragh and Mark had been attending the parade and were leaving after watching the bus pass-by when the incident happened.
Darragh said: 'We were leaving after the bus passed us by and there was just a car coming down with people running after.
"We moved out of the way about two seconds before he came straight through a couple of people. It then went into the reverse going back over people."
Mark said: "A woman ran by me and said the baby got hit by the car. She was running round looking for help."
"She came to us and we just directed her to the police and ambulance," Darragh added.
Mark then described confusion and seeing a police officer covered in blood and visibly distressed in the aftermath.
'At the start we all just ran and panicked we didn't know where to run. We didn't want to go near the crowds because everyone was still celebrating," he said.
"Everywhere else everyone was still oblivious to what had just happened.
"The road was packed we were like sardines, you can imagine that people couldn't get out of the way. I'd say it has to be close to 100 people I saw get injured.'
Another eyewitness Becca Warriner said: "I was less than five metres from being hit with my four-year-old on my shoulders. I had to fight my way in to Hooters. I could see it [the car] coming towards us.
"There was a loud bang then could hear a car hitting people. Everyone was screaming but were too jammed to move.
"Everyone was pushing behind and screaming. I could hear the car hitting people."
Footage circulating online on Monday appeared to show the vehicle speed up as it veered into pedestrians on both sides of the crowded street.
Officers surrounded the car as witnesses attempted to stop the driver, who was eventually detained by police.
Another witness, 28-year-old Matthew O'Carroll, from Runcorn, said the back window of the car was smashed in the incident.
He said: 'We were walking up Water Street and approaching the top of the road and the vehicle came past a parked police van at a decent speed.
'People managed to get out of the way as he was beeping as he went through but as he went past, people were obviously very angry and so started running after the car.
'The back window of the car was already smashed.
'I thought that once it went past us, it was just someone that was trying to get away from something and would slow down when he got to more people.'
Another witness, who was walking with a group of friends, said he saw a car 'speeding up' and hitting pedestrians.
Mike Maddra told the PA news agency the 'car turned left, mounted pavement, come towards us and runs towards the buildings'.
He said 'we got out the way and it was speeding up'.
Mr Maddra said he thought he saw two people being hit and added, 'it looked deliberate' and 'it has just ruined the day really'.