Liverpool fan from Isle of Man describes being 'inches away' from parade incident
A Liverpool fan from the Isle of Man has described being 'inches away' from the car that struck pedestrians during the victory parade.
Stephen Rea had travelled from the Isle of Man to the Liverpool FC parade with a friend, before witnessing the incident on Water Street.
A 53-year-old man was arrested after the 'horror' incident and four children were among 65 who were injured – including one child who was seriously hurt.
Stephen said: "All of a sudden we heard some beeping. And then next thing, if it wasn't for myself telling my friend to get in, we would have been hit by the car unfortunately. It came six inches away from us.
"It was chased by a group of people. I initially went to chase and then I got told by my friend to think better off it, so I stopped.
"There was a bunch of people chasing the car, trying to get to the driver, trying to stop the driver. As the car went past or it went into another mass of people, so we couldn't see anything.
"But what we did hear was about four or five thuds of him hitting other people behind us."
Footage of the incident circulating online appeared to show people in the crowd following the Liverpool Football Club celebrations attempting to get close to the driver of the car, with one managing to open the driver's car door.
Videos then appeared to show the driver close the car door before suddenly speeding up and veering into pedestrians on both sides of the crowded street.
"After that we sort of stood to the side and tried to understand what we witnessed as to why was there a car driving down? You couldn't make sense of it.
It is understood the car made its way onto Water Street after a roadblock was lifted to make way for an ambulance attending a member of the public suffering from a suspected heart attack.
"So as we walked towards our hotel and we were seen, unfortunately, we've seen people that were hit on the side of the pavement and there was a couple on the road and the emergency responders were all running down chasing after the car.
"And yeah, just, you know, it was horrible. It was really horrible."
The force said the suspect was the driver of the car was white, British and from the West Derby area, adding that it was not being treated as terrorism.
He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving offences and driving while unfit through drugs.
On Tuesday morning a police cordon remained in place at the scene, with a large police van parked in front of a blue tent on the road and officers stationed along the street.
Stephen concluded by saying: "I just hope everyone's ok - I know there's some people in hospital seriously ill - I hope they get a full recovery and we can all move past it."
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