A 53-year-old man was detained by the police, who did not confirm that he was responsible for the hit-and-run accident involving Liverpool fans
Liverpool fans were run over by a 53-year-old man during the Premier League title celebration parade on Monday (26/5). The driver was detained by local police. An AFP journalist saw at least four people being taken away on stretchers. The police were called at around 6 pm (2 pm in Brasília), “following reports of a collision between a car and several pedestrians”.
In any case, the police did not confirm whether the detained man was in fact responsible for the accident and asked that “no speculation be made about the circumstances” of the incident. It is not yet known whether there were any fatalities. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed dismay after the accident. “The scenes in Liverpool are horrific – my thoughts are with those injured or affected,” he wrote on X, thanking emergency services for their quick response. One witness quoted by the British PA news agency said he had “seen people lying on the ground, people unconscious”. “It was horrific,” said the witness, Harry Rashid, 48, who was watching the parade with his two daughters and wife. Rashid saw the car, which was going “extremely fast”, plow into the crowd. Photos taken after the crash show police lines along the road, with several ambulances and a fire engine also at the scene.
Another witness told Sky News, in statements reproduced by the PA news agency, that “it was very noisy, people were desperate”. “People started running after the driver and tried to break the car. The police did their best to block them and keep people away,” he added. A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said its own team was “assessing the situation and working with other members of the emergency services”. “Our priority is to ensure people receive the medical attention they need as quickly as possible,” it said.
Liverpool’s star players, Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, led the celebrations alongside the club’s other players in an open-top bus parade that passed shortly before the accident.
Plumes of red smoke from flares accompanied the players’ festive procession, which took four hours to cover the 10-mile route. Liverpool won their 20th Premier League title almost a month ago, with four rounds still to play. However, the trophy was presented on Sunday (25/5), after the last round, in which Liverpool drew 1-1 at Anfield against Crystal Palace.
In 1985, 39 fans, mostly Italian, died when a wall collapsed amid clashes between Liverpool and Juventus supporters at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. In 1989, 95 Liverpool fans were crushed to death during a clash with Nottingham Forest in Sheffield at the Hillsborough Stadium. One more person died the following year. In 2021, Andrew Devine, who was present at the tragedy and had been in a vegetative state since then due to brain damage, died and was considered the 97th victim.
