2025 Liverpool parade incident

2025 Liverpool parade incident
An aerial image showing the immediate aftermath of the incident
Date	26 May 2025
Time	6 pm

On 26 May 2025, a motorist drove a grey Ford Galaxy into a crowd on Water Street in Liverpool, England, during a victory parade celebrating Liverpool Football Club’s 2024–25 Premier League title win. Seventy-nine people were injured, including fifty people who were taken to hospital, including four children. Merseyside Police arrested a 53-year-old white British man at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving, and driving while unfit through drugs.

Background

Prior to the incident, locals and supporters of Liverpool F.C. were watching the team's city-wide victory parade to celebrate their victory in the 2024–25 Premier League. An estimated one million people were in attendance. The open-top bus carrying the football club's team and staff members took a 10-mile (16 km) route starting at Allerton Maze and ending at The Strand in the city centre. The incident took place 10 minutes after the bus had passed through the area.

Incident

Shortly after 6 pm BST on 26 May 2025 a motorist was seen arguing with pedestrians before he accelerated and ran into a large group of them on Water Street in Liverpool during the parade.According to a witness, the vehicle then stopped and people began smashing its windows, but the driver accelerated again and collided with more people, with one witness saying it appeared intentional.

By 7 pm a North West Air Ambulance had landed at the scene, and tents were set up nearby. Just before 9:30 pm the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said they had cleared the scene. At 10:51 pm a press conference on the incident began; in it NWAS said that twenty-seven people were taken to hospital, four of whom were children, whilst a further twenty were treated at the scene for minor injuries; two of those taken to hospital had serious injuries, including a child, and a number of others also took themselves to hospital for treatment. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service added that four people were trapped under the vehicle and had to be removed, including one child. At a press conference the following day, Merseyside Police gave an update saying that there were 65 casualties, including fifty people who had been taken to hospital; they added that eleven remained there in a stable condition. Merseyside Police later said they had spoken to an additional 14 people, bringing the total number of casualties to 79.<r

Investigation

Merseyside Police said they had detained a 53-year-old white British man who was from West Derby and counter-terrorism police were involved. He was arrested at the scene, and is believed by police to be the driver of the vehicle. The vehicle involved in the incident was reportedly a grey third-generation Ford Galaxy. Police are treating the incident as isolated and not related to terrorism, as doing so would require them to demonstrate that the incident met the legal threshold of "advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause".

Reuters said that police were "unusually quick to give a description of the man they arrested" to head off speculation of a religious motive after riots took place following misinformation spread about the 2024 Southport stabbings.

Merseyside Police said in a press conference at 3:30 pm on 27 May that the man detained had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drugs. It is believed the driver was able to access Water Street by following an ambulance that was responding to a suspected heart attack for which the road block was temporarily lifted. They also said that 50 people had been hospitalised, 11 of whom were still in hospital in a stable condition.

Water Street was reopened on the morning of 28 May. The same day police reported they had been given more time to question the suspect and confirmed that seven of the injured people remained in hospital, in a stable condition.

Reactions

King Charles III said that the "strength of community spirit for which Liverpool is renowned will be a comfort and support to those in need"; the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said the whole country "stands with Liverpool". Staff at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital cancelled planned strike action in response; Anne, Princess Royal, visited the injured there the next day.