Once again the car has proved an unstoppable weapon
The tragedy in Liverpool has once again highlighted the power of using a vehicle as a weapon.
As of Monday evening, police were yet to confirm the motive behind the incident.
However, cars and vans have been used to cause death and injury on multiple occasions in recent years, including in terror attacks.
In 2016 Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel used a lorry to plough through a crowd in Nice, on July 14, during celebrations for Bastille Day.
A total of 86 people were killed and more than 400 were injured in what was the second most deadly massacre in peacetime France.
The 31-year-old Tunisian driver was shot by police at the scene, with Islamic State later claiming the attacker was one of its followers.
Eight defendants were later found guilty in connection to the attack and handed prison terms ranging from two to 18 years.Three were convicted of association with a terrorist, while five others were found guilty of supplying weapons.
The following year - two similar attacks in which terrorists used motor vehicles took place in central London.
On March 22, 2017, Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, killing four people and injuring more than 50.
Masood, 52, then went on to crash the hired vehicle into railings outside the Palace of Westminster, before fatally stabbing unarmed police officer Pc Keith Palmer.
The attacker, who had a lengthy criminal history, was then shot dead by an armed police officer.
Just months after the incident, eight people were killed with a further 48 injured, when a van was used to ram pedestrians on London Bridge.
The van's three occupants Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were all shot dead at the scene.
In 2018 Canadian Alek Minassian killed ten people by driving a van into pedestrians in Toronto.
Minassian admitted the attack, but in a subsequent trial, his lawyers argued he was not criminally responsible due to his autism spectrum disorder.
He rented the van some three weeks before the incident, told investigators he had set out to kill as many people as possible and that he drew inspiration from the misogynistic 'incel' movement of mostly online groups of young men who blame their lack of sexual activity on women.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years in 2022.
The series of attacks have led to barriers being installed at a number of sites to prevent copycat incidents.
On a smaller scale, vehicles have been used during episodes of road rage for years.
In June 2022 Luke Geard left a 59-year-old woman with life-changing injuries after deliberately ploughing his car into her in Axminster, Devon.
The 29-year-old, who was sentenced to ten years in prison, had drunkenly crashed into a parked car before a woman tried to stop him from driving away.
Geard drove into the woman, crushing her against another vehicle.
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