Liverpool blast: UK Police declares explosion outside hospital as 'terrorist incident'

UK police on Monday commenced a full-fledged investigation into the deadly explosion in a taxi outside a hospital in Liverpool. Labelling it as a ‘terrorist incident’, Russ Jackson, the head of Counter-terrorism Policing in northwest England, said that the blast was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was bought into the taxi by a passenger, as reported by Associated Press.

Another report by DW news quoted Jackson as saying, “Enquiries will now continue to seek to understand how the device was built, the motivation for the incident and to understand if anyone else was involved in it."

The counter-terrorism police, UK took to Twitter and informed, ‘The incident in Liverpool yesterday has been declared terrorism. Counter-Terrorism Policing, along with our partners, continue to work at pace.’

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that his thoughts are with people who got affected by the ‘awful incident’. He also thanked the emergency services for their quick response and professionalism. 

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel also took to Twitter to inform the citizens that the police and emergency services are working hard to establish what had happened.

Liverpool deadly explosion 

The counter-terrorism police in Britain arrested three men after a taxi exploded outside the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, killing a passenger and injuring the taxi driver. According to AP, the suspects in their 20s were arrested by the police under the Terrorism act on Sunday and a fourth man was arrested on Monday. The police informed that all the four convicts are the ‘associates’ of the passenger who got killed in the explosion.

However, the motive behind this blast is still unknown. After the incident, Russ Jackson said at a press briefing, “Although the motivation for this incident is yet to be understood, given all the circumstances, it has been declared a terrorist incident.”

IMAGE: AP